"God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way." -Leighton Ford

After having completed my first full week of training, I couldn't be more exhausted. From going to bed at 9pm to waking up at 5am, and doing everything imaginable in-between....it's been a busy last few days!

On Monday, I got the opportunity to meet up with a past mountain biking intern who was kind enough to teach us the ropes of what this job actually entailed! It was such a relief to finally learn about what I'd be doing for the summer. We learned a lot, got to ride LB Houston, which was so much fun. It was for the most party pretty flat, with a lot of dips in certain areas, but nothing too difficult. I just can't wait to ride it with the kids, I know they're going to tear it up!

A typical day with the youth is going to look something like this: Meet at Muevete at 7:15am in the Lambda Chai house. From there, my mountain biking partner-in-crime and I will leave to go to our respective site of the day and pick up about 14 kids (6th-9th grade aged) and drive them to the Pack-and-Stack storage unit off of Northwest Highway in Dallas. Each kid will be given a bicycle, helmet, riding gloves and a camel back to use for the day. We'll ride as a group about 1/2 mile from there to the trail-head. After stretching and drinking more water, we'll start on the first of three loops. The first, being rather short, doesn't have anything super eventful to it...just some tight turns, and gorgeous scenery. In contrast, the second loop has lots of dips, turns, stumps, and broken trees that will keep you on your toes for the duration of this section. Luckily for us, there are lots of open areas throughout that will be perfect for taking breaks and letting the kids rest for a few minutes before continuing. After that everyone will stop back where we started and take an hour off for lunch (peanut butter &jelly sandwiches &an apple) and games (soccer). After lunch the kids will head back out to ride the third, and also pretty short, loop of the trail. As soon as that's finished, we'll ride back to storage, put everything away, and drive back to the sites the kids came from. Hopefully putting Ken and my arrival back at SMU around 4pm.

More updates SOON to come :)

Listen to this --> The Truth by Jason Aldean :)