What 24 looks like

I'm 24. Like the popular tv show, but with less terrorists. This weekend the parents and I went camping at pinnacles to celebrate. After some time we realized that we hadn't been camping in SIX years. While sitting around the campfire we got to reminisce a little about past trips. Sky camp with sheldon and jason coming up and then playing mission in the tall grass, lost coast with adam blazing the trail to prove his manliness, I thought of coast camp with our offpath adventure that resulted in poison oak fun, Camping with the Baley's and I carried my own backpack (with just my coat, mind you) until someone carried me on their shoulders the rest of the way, buetano with the slugs, manresa beach with bikes, chain lakes with mosquitoes and so on and so on. I guess being very old makes you reminisce about the good ol' days and such.

On Friday night it was perfectly quiet in our campground

and we were in an open field. It was perfectly still, and it seemed as though the world had stopped. A nice feeling when my week consists of work and then nearly immediately to an activity or choir practice every night except friday. It felt GOOD. We also used the campfire to respectfully dispose of an American flag, as well as garments. I remember two times before where I was one of the color-guards retiring the colors, back in scouts, and it moved me to think about what that flag stood for, and how much has been sacrificed for it. Pretty cool experience, and it was one of the opportunities to realize how much has been given and sacrificed just so I can live a life of my choosing. It crazy to see the unrest in the middle east and currently in Egypt but usually when I hear a report about the unrest or the violence, I don't really allow myself to grasp the import of the situation and think about all the individual lives that are being affected by that crisis. Sorry, I'm not trying to make this a political blog, but sometimes I get carried away in my rambling, as I'm sure all of you know very well. haha

The weather was very warm when we got there but that quickly changed as the sun went down. The fire proved invaluable even for a springtime in California. Now this next part is somewhatshameful for me, but here you have it: it was a COLD night. Due to the frost and

ice on the tents and the campsite, we estimate it was around 28 or so to give it that good of a frosting. I, going to school in Idaho, thought that I was impervious to cold and that anything above 15 is nothing. Well, its only nothing when you're wearing the right clothes and your sleeping bag is decent. All of us woke up several times due to the cold and the less than ideal sleeping conditions, but it was still a lot of fun and proved to be yet another experience that helped me be more grateful for what I have.