(Payton wrote this earlier & then we got sucked away from the computer for the day – here ’tis!)

When we stepped foot out of the vans, we could see our breath in the air and in the pouring rain. Most of us were in sweat shirts and sweat pants but we still had to huddle together to keep warm. As we got further up the hilly mountain, we could see demolished buildings and pieces of wood on and off of the trails. Jacob and the other Smith family children jumped right away into the little creeks beside the trail and looked for gold. Mostly everyone found a piece to keep with them and show there family. Some of us went further up the mountain, Me, Ashton, Grahm, Mareen, Kirk, Owen J., Avery, Jacob, Caleb, Lucas, and Riley. We explored a cave, sending Kirk first to see if any mammals were living there. The boys were brave enough to jump off of a 12 ft rock without anyone falling except for when Grahm slipped on a rock and hurt his back but he is okay now.He was running down the trail on the way back as if nothing happened. We saw a cross on the top of the mountain and that was our goal but we decided that the broken down entrance to a mine shaft would be enough. Kirk gave us 4 min to run to the mine shaft. WE WERE SPRINTING to the mine shaft but only Riley, Jacob, and Avery made it. We were 10 seconds away from reaching it but we had to turn around and head back to eagle crest. In the car we talked about SNL skits like the cheerleaders and my dad’s “HEY!!!” story and many other things making us laugh our heads off. So by the time we got home we were about to crash and sleep forever but had to stay up till midnight and play Mafia. Its the same game we played on the bus ride here and surprisingly, Mia was almost always the mafia. I was also too the mafia once along with Grace and Ben and Emily.