June 29th- July 5th was a life-changing week for me and all of my closest friends. It was the week we went to youth camp. For six days, we stayed in the middle in North Florida, 30 minutes from the Georgia line, with no cell phones, no internet, and only God. You think a bunch of teenagers from Miami would practically call that torture, however, if you questioned any of the kids that went, you would realize that we would not have wanted it any other way. We created games and memories we wouldn't have made if we had our cell phones. These are the photos I took off of a $15 disposable camera from Walgreens. I spared the photos for the best moments and I love every single one of them dearly. Each one even has a story behind it and not one of those stories are serious. We're teenagers, remember? Just scroll through and enjoy! :)
Ps: If you would like to post any of these photos on Instagram or Facebook, you may. Just please remember to let people know that these are my photos. Tag me or give me a little bit of recognition. It won't hurt.
So this is the very first photo of the bunch. I honestly have no idea why. I was testing the camera and this is what it turned out to be. Thanks, Ben.
So this was very few of the people that went. This was a few hours into the drive from Miami to absolutely nowhere. (From Left to Right: Ben, Michael, Grayson, Matt, Marcus, Chris, (our awesome youth leader) Kiana, Alexis, Allison, and Stacen.)
You can't see her beautiful face but this here's my girl, Karina. (aka Kar Kar the Brazilian Fox)
We finally made it! This was the very first night we spent at the campgrounds. I honestly don't know how we survived. It was pitch black, bugs were everywhere, and we had no phones! You can't put Miami girls in a place like that! Surprisingly, we got use to it. We started to enjoy it, in fact! (From Left to Right: Kristine, Naomi, Gaby, Sabrina, Kiana, Yamile, and Ileana)
Playing cards are a necessity when it comes to camping. (Gaby, Lauren, Nicole, and Yamile)
Here's what the cabins looked like from the outside. Cute little thangs. Presented by Yamile.
The girls in our cabin!
So the girls did the wave for a video and I decided to just snap a photo of it. I wasn't really thinking when I took this picture.
Some of the nicest girls you'll ever know. (Carla, Kristine, Naomi, and Gaby)
Not only did we experience a bunch of Jesus, but we also experienced a bunch of pain. Fun pain, though! One of the chaperones, Javi, who was double my weight, blobbed almost all of us. Scariest and most fun moment of the week. (Top: Ben, Middle: Tate, Bottom: Stephanie Romero)
Thank you, lifeguard. Some of my favorites. This is one of my favorite photos, I love all these people so much.
There was also this tower called the Tower of Faith. It had a zip line, a rock climbing wall, and a leap of faith. The zip line was my favorite part because you literally zip-lined over a gator-infested lake. There were only two alligators but whatever.
There was a nature walk along the river that you canoed in, so I walked along and took some cute photos of us canoeing. Again, since we are from Miami, not a lot of us do this kind of stuff. Put us in the ocean and we're experts, but fresh water is not our thing. So the funniest part of the canoes was watching ourselves try so hard to go straight, but end up crashing into each other. It was hilarious. (Nathan, Ben, Allison, and Lauren)
I felt so bad when this beautiful photo came in and Ben's face was covered.
Another one of my favorite photos. This is just purely American, I love it.
In the middle of the week, Steven, Tate, Molly Kate (later named Molly Cray), and I found a nature walk that went on for about 45 minutes. You would walk around in the middle of nowhere and walk into a billion spider webs. It was a lot more fun than I make it sound.
I think our favorite part of the walk was when Tate ripped a tree out of the ground. Let me explain. Tate is a 14 year-old kid who is stronger than most people. He scared all of us this week with his unknown strength. So in the middle of this nature walk, we're all talking and taking pictures when randomly we feel the ground shake a bit and hear the sound of a tree falling over. Tate had apparently ran, jumped and grabbed onto a tree that was tilted, and pulled it down with his bare hands. We all stood there in shock and didn't know what to say. All I could do was take a picture. So here you go guys, Tate pulled down a tree with his bare hands.
Steven, Tate, and Molly Kate (Molly Cray).
Florida, everybody.
The rain didn't stop the whole week. We decided to take advantage of it. The prettiest girls Lauren and Nicole.
Lauren and Nicole jumping for some reason.
Tate and his scary strength that we're all a bit scared of now.
My finger making its rare debut. Stay tuned for another finger shot.
Typical Ben and Nathan. By the way, I'm not sure why the sky turned out pink in some of these photos. Maybe a mistake in the scanner or something. Now we have real marmalade skies! (Anybody?)
Ben, Nicole, Lauren, Tate, and Nathan.
We were so happy the sun came out, we took a picture with it!
Nicole, Lauren, Kiana, Yamile, Allison, Gaby, and Molly Cray.
Since we didn't have our phones to keep us busy, we had to make up other things to do. So Carlos, the boy in the red shirt being held back, challenged everybody to a spice-eating contest. Carlos was the first one to back out while Johnny and Ben remained in the game. The reason Carlos is being held back is because the final round of the spice challenge was to mix all the spices together and eat a spoonful. Once Carlos put the spoon in his mouth, he freaked out and reached for the milk. However, because we're cruel, Matt came around and held him down so the spices could sit a bit longer. It may seem mean, but we were just having fun. It was pretty hilarious, actually.
The last two remaining were Ben and Johnny. They just kept going and going. The whole point of the game was to not drink the milk, just don't drink it. If you did, you lost. Lunch even ended and nobody drank it. They even started eating more spoonfuls of the sauce. They went on for the next hour. Nobody drank the milk. They went on for so long that it soon wore off naturally and they just called in even. It was disgusting and awesome to watch.
Also, Nathan, the dude to the left, has this really cool cat shirt. I love it, but whenever he's wearing it in a photo, the cat just looks like its staring at you. It's pretty creepy. Oh, and there's my finger again!
This photo gets me every time. First of all, Johnny to the left looks hilarious. Now just look at Carlos' face...he's so happy! It even makes you happy!
The winners of our spice-eating challenge. They were demonstrating how they were going to throw up. There's my finger again!
Okay, this finger thing is ridiculous. Anyways, here's another game we created out of boredom. Every time a meal ended, they would call out a cabin number to clean the cafeteria. They gave us these spray bottles to clean the tables with. I'm not sure who thought of it, but they would use the spray bottles to make the salt shaker slide easier across the table. All you had to do was slide the shaker across the table and make it land perfectly on the edge. It got pretty intense after a while. We soon added two more players to the game to act as defense. It's too complicated to type down, but here's a picture of it. Cute, little Allison taking the floor.
Nicole, Lauren, and I in service.
I don't know what to say about this picture, really. Me, Ben, Steven, Nathan, and Stacen.
Love these people. (Counter clock-wise from blue shirt: Johnny, Karina, Steven, Nathan, Marcus, Stacen, Ben, and Michael.)
Another one of my favorites. Ben would always randomly twerk and Nathan would get mad every time. This picture captures it perfectly.
All week long was an on-going skit that Michael (to the left) and Nikki would do. It was about them being stranded on a deserted island with nothing to do. It ended up having a good meaning behind it and all, but man, it was hilarious. The picture isn't that good, but it's showing you the "european guy" (Ben) who saved Nikki from the deserted island. It was hilarious.
Ben, Nicole, and Yamile. Coolest people alive.
Tate, Addison, Ben, and Alexis. All single.
Running in the rain with the homies, Stacen and Ben.
Yay for the finger! So, I was walking around the gym and found our girls falling asleep on the wall. I don't know why, but I thought it was so picture-worthy. Ashlie, Yamile, Kiana, Allison, Karina, Lauren, Cristen, Adri, somebody else I can't see, and Tiffany.
The winning dodgeball team! Nathan is usually the quiet guy who's always on his phone, but that night he stepped out and made us win the game! It was amazing!
July 4th with all the boys. It was sad we didn't get to watch fireworks that night, but we still had a good time. They opened the water park for us until midnight, so that was fun. Just letting you know, these boys are the coolest, funniest, manliest, and most fun boys you will ever meet. They love God with all their heart, it really doesn't get any better than that.
This was the last photo taken at Camp Infuz, 2013. I love every single person on this bus with all of my heart. I thought I was close to them before, but now we have a bond that's unbreakable. Growing in God together can bring a group of people together in ways we can't even imagine, and this week, we proved you can have fun while doing that. If you didn't go to camp this year, these 49 photos are reasons to go next year. I hoped you enjoyed these photos. I want to remember these moments forever and now we can! Thank you for the awesome week, Infuz! Till next year!
-Steph
