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I enjoyed this weekend thoroughly. Before winter break, Amber mentioned to me the possibility of going home with her this weekend. There was a 4-H winter retreat going on, and her parents didn't want her driving home alone. Naturally, I agreed. I figured "Ok, I'll go, we'll get this 4-H thing done, then we can hang out with Amber's friends." I couldn't have been much more wrong.

We got to the retreat around 8p Friday. I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed at first by all the kids running around. Kids ranged from 8 to 16 or so, and there were 115 of them. Right off a few of them clung to Amber. Then a few of them noticed me among her little tail of followers. "Who're you? Are you in 4-H?" They really didn't seem too interested in my responses, but if I was cool with Amber, I was cool with them. I had an in.

That night was the little dance DJed by Amber and yours truly. There really wasn't much dancing going on, but it gave me a chance to get to know some of the kids. I didn't meet a single one I didn't like, and I think they took to me pretty well. Amber told me that a few of the little girls had a crush on me. What can I say? I'm a heartbreaker. I had a lot of fun talking to the kids, getting to know them a bit, and just goofing off. It was so much more fun than I had anticipated.

The only snag of the entire weekend happened at bedtime. Amber and I had planned to share a king-sized air mattress, with separate sleeping bags. The powers that be decided that we couldn't share a bed, because they didn't want to explain to the kids. Neither of us was going to fight, it wasn't a big deal. We put both air mattresses together and slept with an adult chaperone between us.

Saturday morning was cooperative games, activities, and other fun and wholesome things. I got to know a few of the TAs, and a good time was had by all. This was really the first time that I was working away from Amber. I was paired up with Brad first, then I worked with three of the TAs for most of the day. By the time everything was done, I was ready for bed. We weren't done yet though. There were still Amber's other friends to visit. That, though, is a story for another day.