Tropical Freeze - Day One

 

Day one of Summer Xtreme - Tropical Freeze!  It was a really solid start to things today, although a bit backwards in our flow than usual.  Today we knew the weather outside would be ridiculously hot, so we scheduled our outdoor activities first in the morning, with all the kids getting outside first for the "carnival day."  Afterwards, the kids all headed back inside for our service.

Maddie and Emma were co-leaders of a group of girls.  Maddie was a bit nervous, but she did very well and had a great week.  So did their girls!

Here they are together, outside and ready to ride the swinging pirate ship.  Back and forth... back and forth... back and forth... no thank you!  

 

They were outside a few hours and had fun with the inflatables, games and rides.  But then it was time to come inside for Chick-Fil-A sandwiches and the start of our service.

You can see Gia, Emma, and Dawn here, dancing part of their routine here to start things off as bellhops at the resort that's suddenly been frozen over!

Then things really got going - worship was fantastic, with Jonathan on stage with us for praise and worship, along with the KidPak regulars.  

It was amazing.  And then the Tribe games were hilarious and gross, with volunteers squashing bananas with their bare feet in a race to fill up a big container with squashed banana guts.  The kids loved that, and then there was the story we had going with our characters.  Camille played a character that took selfies each day on stage, so we got some of those. 

And Jeremiah was a character that was taking pictures each day too, so he took some photos on the stage as we went along.  The skit went well - the story of our series is simple:  we're at a Tropical Resort that's been suddenly frozen over.  Why?  We don't know.  But we're a rescue team looking for those left behind on the frozen island, while helping the game team discover why the island is frozen.  Along the way, we meet our rival Dr. Gorilla, who has shown himself to be untrustworthy in the past - and he's got an assistant named Frank.  That's me, in a weird inflatable gorilla costume.  It was a fun week for Frank!

You'll see more of Frank and Dr. Gorilla as the week goes on.  But as for today, it went well.  Tucker delivered the message, the first of our series.  It has a "Tropical Freeze" theme to it, as do all the messages.  Proud of that.

Finally, the car line.  It's usually tough that first day.  But today it went really well.  Other than being super hot outside.  Wow, it was so hot outside today.  No fun!  But the line went well, and that capped the day nicely.

Day one is a wrap.  We did some work tonight setting up for tomorrow, but got back home for some rest.  Tonight we actually watched "Descendants 3" to complete the trilogy.  We agreed that this one is our least favorite of the four movies thus far, which is to say it's not terrible.  It does emphasize how pleasantly surprised we were with this last one.  Anyway, we got to bed early, because we're getting up early for day two tomorrow.  We read a little, said our prayers, and now it's time for sleep!