Hayride

So this past Friday, Nov. 16, St. Martin's Youth Group went on a hayride at Butler's Orchard in Germantown.

In a sneak maneuver, Erin made the boys and girls ride in separate wagons. While nobody was excited about about the arrangement, apparently nobody was shocked, either. Yet, somehow, the boys managed to have fun - laughing, joking around, trying to throw apples at the girls, and so on. Happily for the girls, apparently most of the boys throw like girls. A LOT of hay got down people's shirts, shoes, ears, and... well other places too. On the boys' wagon, a fistfight nearly developed over where to best put the hay, but hey, all's well as end's well, and everyone got back in one piece and laughing.

After the hayride there was a bonfire. It's amazing how many things 15 year olds can come up with to burn. Those glowsticks get REALLY bright in fires, and potato chips really get a big blaze going. A lot of hotdogs fell into the fire too, and some marshmallows never made it to their designated graham-cracker-and-chocolate destinations. We had two guitarists and a number of vocalists. Erin decided to get the yoots to play a game she descriptively entitled, "Run across the rutted field at night as quick as you can" game. Normally youth ministers try to prevent such nonsense, but Erin's guardian angel works overtime and so nobody turned an ankle. It got really cold at night, so we had fun seeing how close we could get to the fire without falling in. Some kids tried to hover over the fire, but neither their powers of levity nor their sanctity sufficed to hold them in place - most of them fell, but none of them landed in the fire.

The whole night was a real blast. We'll try to see about getting more pix up.