My Peeps

My Host Family

My family is tons of fun! I've got all four of the kids playing Egyptian Ratscrew with me now. Asher, the ten-year-old, and I play all kinds of card games together all the time. We've also been working on shuffling. Hannah is the eight-year-old and you can tell she loves having some sisters around for once. Joshua, the six-year-old, is the most likely to come up and cuddle with you (although all three of the younger kids do that on a regular basis). Caleb is four and cute as all get out. He likes to call out "Hi, big sister!" to me, which is sooooo cute. They're all four fun to be around and hang out with, and I've been really enjoying them. My hostparents are really sweet too; always offering to help us out and just letting us be a part of their family. The whole family goes up to a lake house about an hour from here where they play in the water and ride their jetskis and stuff like that, and my hostparents are always inviting up not only myself and my "sister," but also all the other Instituters, so that's lots of fun too. I'm such a water person, and I didn't expect God to put me with a family that's the same way! It's cool. The older two kids are on swim team, so we all go to the pool all the time, too. It's fun times.

The Instituters

It's been really cool getting to know the other Instituters. Carrie and I get along really well (despite the fact that she's been sick since she got here), so it's been fun rooming with her, my "big sister." She's really sweet and bubbly and outgoing, which is good, because I have a tendency to be too withdrawn in group situations, and she helps pull me out of that.

I've been able to spend some time with Julie, because her hostfamily was out of town for a little while, so I'd spend the night with her so she wasn't by herself. She's been a real encouragement to me so far this summer; she's had some good advice on life in general. Talking with her is always encouraging.

Abby and I have been able to hang out some too, and I love getting to know her. She has such a mind for God and she's really good at analyzing what we've been learning and asking good questions about it. She’s a cool kid, and I’m glad we’re getting to know each other this summer.

Marcus is sharing music with me, which makes me go “Squee!” He’s been making mixed tapes for me, and I always love learning new music, so I was really excited when he offered to do that for me. He's a fun guy and it's been neat getting to know him.

Tyler and I already knew each other, but it's still be neat seeing him this summer. It's always nice to go into something knowing at least someone, though we tried to kind of avoid each other for the first few weeks so that we'd be able to get to know the others and not get stuck in the friendships we already had. But we still play ERS together every so often!

Overall, I love the Summiteers! We've had some good times already, and I'm excited to see what awesome times we're going to have over the rest of the summer!