Birthday Present

When I got back from Trek, my parents had my birthday gift ready for me. I opened it up, and I saw a Arlington High Colts T-shirt, a pair of khakis, but the biggest gift was a Toshiba Laptop. I was very surprised. I am enjoying it greatly. I haven't had an official birthday celebration with family yet since school and Trek kind of overtook things.

Hurricane Gustav

Our church is taking in 150 evacuees from Hurricane Gustav, so be sure to remember them in your prayers. Also, pray for all of the workers working with the evacuees. Our Family Life Center has been turned into a room full of cots, chairs and tables in preparation for this event.

Trek

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of going on Wilderness Trek in Buena Vista, CO. Our youth group drove up to Amarillo, spent the night, and then drove to base camp at Noah's Ark. We spent the night in large weather tents. The next morning, we got ready, ate breakfast and went to go climb and rappel. I was not a very good rock climber, and I became very hesitant to go rappeling. Thankfully, my foot slipped on the giant rock where we were rappeling, and I had the experience of going rappeling. It was very nerveracking. That afternoon, we went whitewater rafting down the Arkansas River, which was adjacent to Noah's Ark. I went 10 miles down, with up to class 3 to 3 1/2 whitewater. Our guide was wonderful. He had us doing 360s and telling us what certain rocks looked like as we passed by them. The next day, we began our trek. My group was dropped off about less than 40 miles from Aspen, CO. We began, and I felt how physically tiring it was. Thankfully, we made it camp later that day, so I could rest! The next day was August 12th, which was my 17th birthday. It was the coldest it's ever been on my birthday. It just so happend that that day was the summit day. Thankfully, and with the Lord's strength, I made it to 13,200 feet at the Continental Divide. My group had our lunch up there. We later began going down, and with the elevation we were in, we crossed some snow. At that point, I was afraid that I might die. The snow was about a foot deep and tapered off to some rocks that continued to go down the mountain. Before anyone in our group had gone down, our fearless leader made tracks in the snow for us to put our feet in. Thankfully, one of the adult sponsors from our church helped me across the snow. Our packs were then picked up by our other leader, and sent down the snow to a small plateau where everyone was waiting for everyone to come down. Once the packs were sent down, we had to ladder climb with our hands down the snow to get to the plateau. For most of the way, I slid, which was a scary experience. I was able to make it down the rest of the main and rocky part of the mountain. We camped that night, and continued our trek the next day, with a much easier path (after crossing more rocks and coming farther down a mountain). We made it to base camp later that day, and to my liking discovered that there was a porto-potty right around the corner from camp. CIVILIZATION!!! Most of you who have been on trek know what biffing is, and the porto-potty took care of me not having to biff in the woods! At dusk, we were waiting for our fearless leader. And we were told that he had been helping another group. But, what really happend was that he had hitchhiked his way into Buena Vista to get us some ice cream and fixins, and had been brought back by a friend of his to our camp. We ate that evening and enjoyed the warmth of the fire. The next day, we didn't have anywhere to hike, so we just relaxed, shared a few life stories, ate lunch and jumped into a creek. There were some cylindrical culverts that everyone, including me, jumped off of. I jumped, hit my tailbone on a rock, but came out having trouble breathing because the water was so cold! Later, the bus came, got us and we went back to base camp where we spent the night, and went to Amarillo the next day. After spending the night at the Central Church of Christ in Amarillo, we came home. It was a very exciting, exhausting but fun trip to do. I am very blessed to be able to have the experience to do this.

2008 McGregor Family Vacation

At the end of July, our family took a vacation to Taos, Albuquerque and Canyon, TX. We decided to drive to Taos, which is about ten and a half hours from Arlington. We left at about seven in the morning and drove all the way to Taos, where our good friends were renting a vacation home. We decided to stay at the El Pueblo Lodge in Taos, which is a good place to stay at if you are ever in Taos. Over the next few days, we shopped and sightseed in the beautiful 70 to 80 degree mountain weather. On Sunday, I wanted to go to the Taos Church of Christ, so we did. There were fifteen people in attendance that day including our family and two friends. As expected, it was a very traditional Church of Christ. The people were very friendly, and even the preacher, his wife and his daughter and son-in-law went with us to lunch that day. Sunday afternoon, we took a little trip on the Enchanted Circle to Red River, NM. Red River was probably my favorite place on the trip, because it was like an old west town in the mountains. The weather was very nice there, too. On Monday, we drove down to Albuquerque. On our way there, we stopped in a small town called Madrid, which is where the film "Wild Hogs" was filmed. It seemed a little like a hippy town and was interesting. We made it to Albuquerque that evening and went to our bed and breakfast called "The Inn at Paradise", which is located on the Desert Greens Golf Course in the Paradise Hills portion of Albuquerque. I would recommend this place to anyone who is going to Albuquerque. The landscaping at the inn is beautiful, and you can look out over the golf course. While we were at "The Inn at Paradise", the New Mexico Junior PGA Tournament was taking place, so it was a treat to see all the young golfers golfing. The next day, we ate our breakfast and went to Old Town Albuquerque. We went around and shopped and went in an old Catholic Church. After Old Town, we hit the road for Canyon, TX. We made it to Canyon just in time to check into the Holiday Inn Express and to freshen up a little bit before we went to see the "Texas" show in Palo Duro Canyon. I would recommend the show to anyone. It is very entertaining. The next day, we got up, ate, and drove home. We had a very nice and relaxing five day vacation.