Tom and Raiden's Excellent Adventure

What a weekend! This weekend I took Raiden with me on the Spring Retreat for our youth group at church. We had a BLAST!!!
Friday we drove out with the rest of the youth group to Lariat Creek Christian Camp in Geary, Oklahoma. Even though we stopped in Garth Brooks' hometown of Yukon for dinner, we still made it to the camp around 8:00pm. Upon arrival, I told Raiden we had to get to a special cabin that I wanted to sleep in. We grabbed our gear and before the rest of the group knew what happened, me and Raiden were walking across the suspension bridge towards the cabins. We slept in the "new" cabin that is a log cabin with single beds and no bunkbeds. Plus it had a new heater which was helpful because the temperature was in the upper 30s Saturday morning. Friday night Raiden got to stay up until midnight which was "lights out".
Saturday morning I woke Raiden up around 8:00am. Being a sponsor/teacher on the retreat I was able to get into the kitchen before the kids were allowed to eat. I hooked Raiden up with 4 pancakes fresh off the griddle and apple juice. The funny thing was Raiden coming out of the kitchen in front of 100 kids and talking about how good breakfast was. The other kids were not allowed to eat for another 45 minutes.
Raiden spent most of the time between breakfast and worship "exploring" the woods of the camp. He "discovered" many trails around the camp and told everyone about them. He also learned a "game" from the seniors. Its called Gladiator. Instead of shaking someone's hand or patting them on the back, you chop people on their forehead like a gladiator with your hand. Raiden brawled with the seniors most of the weekend.
Raiden also got to spend group time with my group and he seemed more interested in playing than listening, which was fine. He did not disturb the group. He even added a few comments during one of the discussions.
Saturday night was the "talent" show which he and I were the Pony Express delivering mail as a form of communication. I got to be the horse. Raiden laughed alot during the talent show. Then he and I went to the bonfire that was expertly constructed. He got to make smores and he ate two of them.
Before bed we went to a dark part of the camp and we watched stars for over an hour. In that time we saw 4 shooting stars. He had never seen one before so he thought that was very cool.
Sunday morning we left after a communion service and got to the church 1 1/2 hours before everyone else.
Raiden had a great time and he has already told Jake, our youth minister, that he was coming to the Fall retreat in October.