How many trees are there in the forest?

Preface & Character Intro:
This post is a memoir of apostle 2. A two week camp at Camp Hammer in Boulder Creek, where we learned about the culture of the time that Jesus grew up in, the role of his disciples, and how to be one.

Apostle Campers:

Interpretive (Rachel)
Sockhop (Kelly)
Dance Dance Revolution (Jennifer)
Electric Slide (Nathaniel)
Charelston (Shamus)
Jitterbug (C.j.)
Foxtrot (Michaela)
Can-Can (Mikayla)
Salsa (Alicia)
Shopping Cart (Andrew)
Apostle Staff:
Ex (Daniel)
Oodalollie (Bree)
Trumpkin (Jessica)
Steamboat (Brad)
Indigo (Moorea)
Eureka (Rochelle)
Sundance (Sean)

Assuming its common knowledge among bloggers that
the first post is usually the roughest around the edges and, at least
for me so far, the hardest to get started.
So I apologize in advance for my babbling..
That is if you can babble over the internet

this is starting to sound like nonsense
but hey, its my thought process

After only five days, I am severely nostalgic for the fortnight ( thats two weeks, eureka)
I spent at camp hammer, making new friends, and tightening bonds with old ones.
er, as in friends Ive had for awhile, not literally old
(though some of them claim to be "old". What is considered old these days anyways..)

just a few side notes before I get all sentimental about the past two weeks:
1. I tend to overuse the ellipsis
2. The names I use are all going to be camp names. see preface (nicknames given to apostle campers, and staff to be used for two weeks or the whole summer)
3. I'll try to keep my use of ridiculously large words to a bare minimum
4. I'm very sorry in advance for the lack of background information, I guess I just don't expect anyone to read this who doesn't know what I'm talking about
4a. If any of my camp friends are reading this, I miss you all terribly, the valley is bearable

Okay,
the first week of camp was spent intermixing with the high school camp that was
going on at the same time as apostle 2. This meant we didn't get our camp names for
another week among other..."drawbacks". Which was no big deal whatsoever. Everyone
hung out, ate together, and laughed and cried together. (maybe the last part is a little over dramatized, but you get the idea)
The Purple Parrots were in it to win (it), closely followed by the blue barracudas. While the Red jaguars competed their fierce little hearts out, and Orange iguanas won spirit, and nailed fourth place! (my iguana..)
Sockhop and Boot Scoot found Waldo the last night, definitely a highlight of the week..
I just realized I sound like a school newspaper journalist, thats no good.

the second week was a TON of swimming for apostles and their beloved staff
I got a compliment on the green stripe through my bangs from the chlorine
(thank you, gov'na = ] )
I learned how to do a front flip off of the diving board... kind of
me and steamboat tread a lot of water and, unfortunately he didn't wear his
cowboy boots in the pool.

Indigo and I performed Falling Slowly from the movie Once in the week 1 cabaret
and It was so fun, and beautiful, and I was a little ridiculous, but at least the audience laughed
with us.
The second week cab was without a doubt one of the funnest things we did at camp
besides reliving it some thirty odd times, we got to dress up and danced probably a little over
6 miles by the time of our final performance. (a room with scattered individuals who hadn't been at the cab the night before)
we had a day to choreograph, teach, and practice, the entire thing and it was AMAZING
in the literal sense of the word.
The gauntlet was fun, and rewarding, pretty wet, but still fun.
Seminars with ex, oodalollie, and mossy, were challenging, informative, and intimidating at first.
After the first two though me and the eleven other apostles would find ourselves
sitting around the yurt talking about life experiences, questioning, and re-reading different parts of the bible. From were there dinosaurs, to what was happening in sodom and gohmorra?
As it was put by a close friend of mine, we doubted, so that we could believe.
we asked question, after question. Bringing up new topics out of nowhere, reading between the lines became an obvious explanation, and when in doubt, go ask mossy, or ex.
sometimes we'd just end up praying about it.

I had personal struggles, doubts, trust issues.
That was the base of a life changing experience, that to write down
would quench how spectacular it was, is, and I know me writing it down
would not do it justice. So I'll just let it flower in my mind.

Apostle is truly one of the most amazing things to ever happen to me
every day I'm reminded of it, and I miss the people, the messages, the games.
But its there still, fresh in my mind.

I'm thinking reliving, replaying it all is too much for one blog, this one is already excruciatingly long. There are plenty of things I left out, so I'll pepper them throughout my next several posts,
stay tuned.
I find it amusing that since this is sort of equivalent to a journal for me, I'm telling myself to stay tuned.. whatever

all my lovin