OK, so last week I was planning to do a more “normal life” blog post, but as it turns out, time got away from me.

Not to mention that normal life is actually pretty boring. So there’s that.

But anyway. This past weekend, my family took a trip to Canada (which Sara blogged about as well). Instead of focusing on what we did over the weekend, I’m going to focus my post on the underappreciated aspect of family vacations … the car ride.

There’s just something special about road trips. Getting up while it’s still dark outside, snuggling under blankets in the cold van, the excited chattering that’s way too loud for 5:00 in the morning.

Then the peacefulness that settles over the van as we all finally go back to sleep again, and the gentle drone of my dad listening to an audiobook to keep himself awake while he drives.

Then the sunrise, followed by the growing chatter as one person after another wakes up again and starts asking for food, the search for a McDonald’s, and the ensuing chaos as everyone tries to get their order communicated to Mom first.

The little McDonald’s bathroom where I stress out about how frizzy my hair is after two hours of sleeping in the van. The strange-smelling hand soap and scratchy paper towels. Then climbing back into the van with deliciously unhealthy fried breakfast foods as we keep driving.

It’s amazing how much personality comes through when a family of ten is stuck in a small space for seven hours straight. Sara alternates between asking if we can please turn on the radio and cracking lame jokes that for some reason never fail to make me laugh. Callie sits with her earbuds in and her eyes closed, in her own little world, but tunes in to the rest of us often enough to pose for a picture or laugh at an inside joke.

Mitchell is begging to play on the tablet, and Gabriel is, of course, being his usual adorable self and trying to get attention with everything from funny comments to random loud noises. Laurie is wondering how soon we’re going to stop for lunch, and Aubrey is asking every half hour how long it will until we get there. Zachary has borrowed my phone and is jamming out to Tenth Avenue North in his headphones.

Lunch is another fast-food place, and after that, everyone is getting tired of driving. Gabriel still wants attention and is starting to get pesty as his sisters are ignoring him. Aubrey is yelling that she has to use the bathroom. Zachary has fallen asleep with his headphones still on, and I steal back my phone. He doesn’t notice.

But after awhile some of the kids start to fall asleep, and now we’re not far away from our destination. We reach the Millers’ house at around 3, and hang out with them for supper. Then at 8, it’s time to head out for the last leg of the trip–two hours to our cousins’ house.

The evening section of the trip goes well since most of the kids sleep. We reach our cousins house after ten. The cousins all stayed up to welcome us, and we climb out of the van into the cool Canada air.

Of course this is just a little picture of what our road trips look like. Every one is different, and some of them are definitely more fun than others.

But the last few times our family has traveled together, I missed it because I was doing something else. So it was a lot of fun to go on another road trip–even with the stressed-out parents, whining siblings, moments of carsickness and our rusty maxi van (which I’m still convinced is going to die for good sometime when we’re eight hours away from home).

It makes me kinda sad to think that the days when we all travel together in the van like this are numbered. But I’ll certainly enjoy them while they last, and this one added a bunch of fun new memories with my siblings.

Some funny quotes from the trip:

Me after noticing an unpleasant smell: “It [smells like] the paper mill again.” Gabriel (age 4): “No, it’s just the fog.” (Well of course. Why didn’t I think of that?)

Gabriel (singing): “Buffalo is a city! Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!”

Sara (reading a billboard): “Antique and flea market??? Me: “Home of the Antique Fleas.”

[From the trip back]

Gabriel: “I took Buffalo and threw it in the trash can, and now Buffalo’s GONE!”

Also Gabriel: “The volcano interrupted!!”

Last weekend, our family got the opportunity to sing for East District Mennonite Church at their church retreat.

I wasn’t really expecting much. After all, I barely knew anyone, and the people I did “know” were just faces I had seen at quiz meets or at summer camp–no one I really knew well.

But I have to say, it really was a good weekend. Not necessarily because of one big, climactic thing that made it all worth it, but rather, a collection of little things constantly making me smile.

It rained Sunday afternoon, which of course didn’t stop East District’s youth group from playing Spikeball or volleyball and offered the exciting opportunity of sliding down a hill in the slippery mud (I was boring and just watched them, and spent most of the rainy time in the pavilion babysitting Gabriel (see adorable picture above)).

Sara and Callie, on the other hand, got absolutely drenched and really didn’t seem to mind. The rain did give the weekend a cozy feel, so I appreciated that 🙂

The church had a talent show on Monday morning. We got to do a demonstration Bible quiz meet with some of the Shade Valley and Maranatha quizzers, which was definitely a lot of fun. At the end my dad gave his signature performance of The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, which was a highlight of my weekend ?

Below are a few more fun pics from the weekend–snapshots of the little things that made this trip special 🙂

Beyond that, I got to have several excellent quizzing conversations (which got me hyped up for the practice season to start again), renewed some old friendships (from the last time I went to East District’s church retreat at age 8) and got to play some sports (which stretched me out of my comfort zone … scary but a lot of fun).

Overall it was a great weekend, and thanks to those little things, I almost always had something to smile about 🙂

This weekend, I got the chance to hang out with my youth group at the cabin. It wasn’t a very structured event, which was pretty nice because it gave me the chance to step back from the pressure of everyday life and just enjoy myself.

Right off the bat, our youth leader told us we couldn’t have our phones in our rooms but had to keep them downstairs on the table. Even though not everybody was happy about this, it definitely made it easier to build relationships.

Saturday was a relaxed day – we played sports, some people went swimming in the pond, and we ate lots of junk food 🙂

In the evening a guest speaker came and gave a talk, which was followed by our annual cake bake-off. My team lost horrendously with a sad attempt at chocolate cake that we named the Mudslide (don’t think too hard about that one), but it was a lot of fun. Yes, I ended up covered with cocoa powder and with a bit of a stomach ache, but I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Sunday morning we watched an inspiring message by a Christian comedian for church (probably the only thing capable of keeping us awake all the way through the service — most of us were up until one or two both nights).

Afterwards some of us helped make lunch, then we cleaned up and headed home.

If I were to choose a theme for this weekend, though, it wouldn’t’ve had to do with the activities we had or the emotions that ran high sometimes or even the friendships I built.

One thing that kept on striking me this weekend is the idea of growing up. I’ve only been to the cabin with our youth group once before, over a year ago. Because of that, everything seems to have a memory attached to it. I remember last year’s conversations in the dark, last year’s cake bake, last year’s group games and sports.

And the truth is, things have changed since then. Maybe everyone else is different, or maybe I’m different. I guess we’ve all grown up since then, learned a little about ourselves and a little about God and a lot about what it means to grow up. It’s amazing how much changes in a year.

Growing up is weird. In so many ways I still feel like a little kid, telling myself stories and being awkward in conversation and struggling at sports.

And yet I look back and I wonder where the twelve-year-old me went, because whether or not I like it … I’m changing. And it’s good, even when it hurts a little bit.

This weekend was really good for me. It was relaxing, it was good to step back from life and, in a way, take a deep breath before the craziness of the school year kicks in. But it also gave me a lot to think about, and I’m grateful for that.

Hey there!

This is my first ever blog post *confetti* I’m not really sure how to do this, but I thought I’d start with a little introduction to my blog.

Anyway. I’m Emily. I’m a Christian, I love music (as you probably already guessed :p) and I love to write.

This post is mostly just to give you an idea of what to expect from my personal blog posts. I’ll probably do some life updates, a few book or movie reviews, random thoughts, and hopefully at some point in the future, I’ll also be posting chapters from some of the stories I’ve written. (At the moment they’re all kind of a mess but… you know … someday)

And I’m going to try really hard not to let this thing die right away, either 🙂

So that’s what you can expect from my blog. I’m sure writing this will be a learning experience for me, but I’m also really excited about this new opportunity 🙂