Chaperone

I was a chaperone for a youth event this past weekend. We took 6 teens to Winterfest in Gatlinburg. I had never been before and it was also #1's first youth rally. It was VERY professionally done, and we all had a great time. Well most of us had a great time. I think #1 was a little young to go. Other 12 year olds are probably fine to go, and if he had had a friend his age he may have been fine, but I didn't feel like he was mature enough to handle it. He had a couple of break downs during the weekend, and cried softly because he missed his brother and his monkey. The monkey is still an issue. I heard him tell one kid that he slept with a monkey. The kid asked incredulously, "You don't still sleep with it do you?" He side stepped as best he could to still appear cool and say of course he doesn't still sleep with a monkey! It was a difficult weekend for him. The conference itself was great. They use a lot of different ways to teach- lecture, skit, video, experiments, singing groups, etc.- in order to get the lesson across. The lesson was Love God, Love Others. Now I am giving #1 the day off of school while I work with #2 on how to write a research paper. Then Wednesday #2 gets the day off while I work with #1. #1 didn't wake up until about 8:30 this morning, and went to bed about 9:00 last night. I slept well too.