Gotcha

This morning Daddy was the speaker, and it was one of those mornings that featured a whole bunch of volunteers and staff who were completely zonked!  We'd just endured two straight weeks of Summer Xtreme, and everything went well - but we are all very, very deeply exhausted.  That being said, it was a unique service this morning - and fortunately a shorter one.  Daddy was speaking about the Tribe of Judah - you can see the twelve brothers up there.  This first service featured some slightly unruly brothers on stage, but we made it through the illustration just fine!

It's another year later today - this is Gotcha Day again.  Look at this one picture we took nearly eleven years ago, somewhat cropped.

We posted this on social media and I think we got more likes on it than we've ever gotten on anything before.  It was an insane amount of responses, so I think everyone loved this picture.  Its as something new, and she just looks so cute in this picture.  It immediately brought back memories of this day.  It's not from Gotcha Day, but this picture was a few days later.  Madison was smiling a lot on this day, and looked very nice in her new red dress.  We had her dressed up for the traditional red couch photo - this was taken just before the big group photo.  We dressed her up and brought her down to the lobby, and as you can see, she was very happy to be down there.  There are so many moments during those few days with Madison that we'll never forget.

This afternoon we spent a bit more relaxed, although there are things coming up that need to be done upcoming that are a bit stressful.  And we're amazingly worn out from the past few weeks.  But there's a vacation coming and we'll all be able to relax and spend some time together soon enough.  We had services this morning, naps afterwards, and some quiet time afterwards, including that finale of "Gravity Falls" again, as well as Daddy catching up on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." with the most recent episode.  The girls got to see that Friday, but Daddy was away then.  Now we're all caught up there.

We went to bed early today - so tired lately!  But we'll catch up on rest soon enough.

Powerline

It was another long day at the conference, but it did come to an end eventually, and after a long drive home, Daddy got there in time for a short movie.  He had one movie on his mind:

"A Goofy Movie."  This above isn't a scene from "A Goofy Movie," but it would be fun if it was.  Wouldn't it be great to have Powerline performing at Forward next year?  There are a whole lot of us from that generation that think so.  I've noticed a resurgence of Powerline concert t-shirts lately, and I'm kind of wanting one now.  I might even make my own custom t-shirt!

We sat together, and after all the noise of the last few days, it was good to just rest, and quietly watch a movie.  One of the reasons Daddy left earlier was that he is speaking tomorrow at KidPak, and needed time to go home and prepare a message.  But it was also hard to resist spending some time with the family, simmering down a bit.

Madison had another similar day today to the others.  She's online as Mei_Mei23, doing some sort of game on Roblox, destroying things in mazes or something.   But she was on piano for a bit today as well.  Other than that, it was somewhat of a dull day for her, at least compared to all the noise and excitement of Forward.  Keep in mind, she's had two consecutive weeks of noise and fun at Summer Xtreme, and soon we'll be on vacation.  So it's okay to kick back for a bit.  But soon we'll have to start picking up a bit, and doing more with our spare time.  Sometimes it takes a little longer to get self-motivated, especially with video games around.  Ah... that explains what happened to a lot of my youth!

Tomorrow we'll spend at church a lot of time, so it was okay today to kick back a bit.  We'll get back into the flow of things again soon enough.

Forward Island

I'd like to say this was me for the most part, relaxing at Forward Island here.  Of course, this was just a joke image.  This area is set up to help cool folks off, with kiddie pools of water, mist sprayers, and squirt guns.  There are lounge chairs and photo ops, and just a nice place in the shade for those wanting to cool down some.

The bigger part of the day - and it was an immense one - was a whole lot of work carrying things in, taking pictures, moving things about, carrying water to folks, guiding people to seats, answering questions, checking in volunteers, moving things to seats, and even some writing for the new series in between all that.

It was the second day of Forward, and by all accounts, things are going well here.  Meanwhile, Madison was having a good day at home.  She was learning to cook!  True story.  She was making pudding, and making cookies too.  Daddy had some of the pudding a few days later, and it tasted delicious.  In fact, there's just one more pudding left in the refrigerator, and I'm thinking of going to grab that now!

She was also reading for a while, and playing the piano.  Its was a slightly less lazy sort of day for her today, thanks to Mommy's guidance.  It's tough in the summer, finding that balance between boredom and legitimate rest.  But today was a good day.  Next year, she'll be at Forward, and things will certainly pick up for her there.  But for now, it's good to learn, stay cool indoors, and get some rest.

Forward Mountain

If you see a group picture of Forward Mountain, odds are, I took it.  I took many, many pictures of groups and individuals on this mountain today.  It's a solid piece of work, actually.  It stood up to a lot of weight, and as everyone was passing by this mountain, it stood up to quite a bit of parkour.  

Daddy is in this picture above, taking a picture with the cell phone of a small group on Forward Mountain.  We took dozens and dozens of pictures on this mountain of all different size groups, sometimes over 50.  Meanwhile, afterwards in the Gwinnett Arena, Forward started in pretty epic fashion, with thousands and thousands of screaming teenagers.

This image below gives you an idea of how many people came to this event.

What's amazing to me is the amount of people that came to this event that didn't attend.  Meaning this:  the volunteers.  I got to meet so many new faces here, all of these people that came to the Gwinnett Arena, but didn't actually go inside the arena to see anything going on with the the service itself.  They were all in the back area, eating and resting during service, or at least taking a break.  But for the most part, they were - up until then - doing all kinds of work in setting things up, guiding folks to seating, greeting with excitement (despite the sunny super hot weather), moving water bottles, directing the flow of people, placing things in seats, working with cameras, and so on.  There were so many volunteers here, and many of them even took time off.  The lady I was talking to during dinner time actually was there on her birthday.  It was just a wonderful picture of the church in action - so many volunteers, and none of them actually there to enjoy the proceedings inside the arena.  Instead, they were there to enjoy serving.

Madison was at home with Mommy today, and there are a few things she did from piano to the chore chart.  But a lot of today was sitting on her computer, talking to friends and playing games.  It'll be that way the next few days - we're just in that season at the church with these insane hours week after week after week.  The hope is for a calmer July, but things don't seem to be slowing down there either.  At least we'll get a short vacation in there somewhere, I think...!

In the Warehouse

So as mentioned earlier, there's this warehouse full of stuff that needs to go, and needs to be donated somewhere, and here we are.  I mean, we have this Jurassic Park series coming up, and lo, there's all this free - and amazingly high quality - stuff available for us, if we'd just drop by and pick it up.  It's a stunning sort of blessing, and something that will be pretty awesome for the kids.  More on that in a bit.

In the meantime, it was a KidPak night, and you can see Tucker speaking to the kids tonight.  Madison has been coming to KidPak each night, as there's no reason to get up super early in the morning.  It was a good, solid night, another part of the "Tribes" series.

We're working on Forward now, the big event that starts tomorrow.  It's a huge deal, with 11,000 teenagers filling up the Gwinnett Arena.  There are a lot of working parts to this, a lot of working parts.  Many, many, many volunteers fuel this along, and there are so many people coming in from literally all over the world.  This past Sunday, Mommy and Daddy met a group of folks from a church in Singapore that came all this way to attend Forward.  So we're working in that direction, quite a bit.

Madison did some piano today, and there was Gravity Falls as well.  We also started a book, "Heir to the Empire," one that Daddy thought might be fun to read.  It might be bigger than anticipated, but I'm plugging along:  there are a lot of familiar characters in this book for the girls, and the truth is, I remember this as a great book.  It introduces some epic characters to this universe, while using really well the existing one - it might be a fun read!  A longer one, but hopefully a good one!

Stripes

Madison had some more taekwondo tonight, sparring with a few of the others, and doing pretty good actually.  Her first opponent was somewhat more experienced, with a higher belt level.  Madison wasn't too bad with this challenger, but the following challenger was a lower belt level, and she was pretty dominant with him.  It was fun to see!

Madison earned her first stripe today, this even after a few weeks of Summer Xtreme, and not feeling entirely "with it."  Nevertheless, she earned it outright, and is ready to move on to the next stripe.  She's committed this week!

Daddy is writing devotional material lately, writing for our "Toy Box" series, which we've also been working on this week.  No rest for the weary!

Here's an initial look for the new series, which leaves no doubt about what inspired it.  This is the earliest idea for the look from the graphics guy, and so now comes the back and forth about modifying it... but time is short, and I think we're pretty close on this one.

Anyway, the writing has begun, and this is an entirely new series, so it's a lot to write.  Some material may show up here soon enough.

In the meantime, Madison was playing piano today, and enjoying a generally quiet day.  It was a quiet day at the office too, although things are about to pick up pretty dramatically.  One thing on the horizon is Forward, and another is a large donation of props that we just got wind of.  Look at this:

Daddy took this picture in a warehouse.  There were plenty of objects like these TIE fighters, including these near life-sized AT-ATs:

This church is literally giving these items to us, which is incredible!  We just have to make arrangements to pick up a lot of these props, or at least make arrangements for others to pick up these props.  It will be tremendous, of course.  These are neat props.

We sat down together tonight for a movie:  "Prince of Persia."  It was a fun movie, one that Madison hadn't seen before.  We were telling her the basic concept of it, and she answered, "You had me at time travel."  The ending of this movie has to be so frustrating to some people, but I love annoying endings sometimes!

Speaking of annoying endings...

Who Dares Summon Transitron?

It was a quiet day today.  We wrapped up our "Science Fair" book tonight, and all agreed that it was great fun.  Of course, the day was saved, and of course everything ended well for our heroes, while our antagonists mostly learned a lesson or two.  Mommy and Madison called it out a while back that somewhere over the plot of this story, the ginormous Mentos ball would fall into the tub of Diet Coke.  And sure enough, that had to happen.  We might be ordering some more books by one of these authors shortly, although we also have the other author's works about the Kingdom Keepers that we could take a look at.  But for now, we're happy that the country was saved by the Hubble Heroes, and it's been nice at bedtime reading a book together as always.

We've been prepping for the "Toy Story" series more today with writing, and more watching too:  we saw all the shorts and the special "Toy Story of Terror," plus even the holiday-themed one, "The Toy Story that Time Forgot."  We were brainstorming ideas for short messages in the devotional, something that Daddy was working on a good bit today.

In fact, here's a short devotional inspired by the very brief appearance of a character named Transitron from "Toy Story of Terror."

*******

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 NIV

     Who dares summon Transitron?  One moment, there are four separate vehicles racing around, and the next moment, they’ve all interconnected and transformed into a ginormous battle robot!  Its name is Transitron, and it’s an amazing toy with so many different possibilities!
     But as we read in the book of Romans, giant robots aren’t the only ones that can transform.  It’s there that Paul told all of us to do something important: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
      Did you get that?  Yes, that means you’re a Transformer too!  When we decide to follow Jesus, we change – we transform.  We no longer follow the world, because we follow Jesus. And when we do that, everything about us transforms!  Like Transitron, our very purpose changes as we put on the full armor, and get ready to fight the good fight of faith.  We’re Transformers, and yes, we’re more than meets the eye.  God Himself has empowered us for victory, and we’re ready to battle the forces of darkness to save the world!
     So, are you ready for a world of adventure?  Go ahead and be transformed, and let’s get started!  

*******

Madison was playing piano today, and sort of relaxing with the computer a good deal.  The rain was heavy today, so that prevented us from going out and doing anything outdoors much.  But we did drive over to the dermatology office to deal with a pesky little wart.  As for the skin on her face, it's looking much, much better.  There were some medications prescribed, but the skin cream that these doctors prescribed weren't as effective as some of the oils Mommy has been using.  We've had to try all sorts of things, feeling our way around to see what works.  Finally, I think we're at a place where we can do well.  It's a something you have to be diligent with, but it seems to be working.

We had taekwondo after that, and Madison is moving along with that this summer, slow and steady towards that next belt.  She's doing great though, and still really enjoying it.  She's keeping on pace, and determined to move forward, learning more and more each day.  Summer is rolling by, and June is almost at an end here, but it's been a fun summer so far with three week-long camps already under her belt.  By August, I think that belt will be changing color...!

Sunday after SX19

We had KidPak this morning, which went well despite the fact that everyone was totally zonked, wiped out, and very much out of gas.  Or, at least Daddy was.  It was so great to have friends and volunteers here to help lift the ministry - the end result was a stellar morning, with our message about Reuben, one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.  Amongst all these Summer Xtreme stories and messages, on Sundays (and Wednesday nights), we're visiting the Twelve Tribes of Israel again, and these messages are pretty solid.

This morning you can see we had our volunteers up on stage for a Ninja Race, an animated race on stage where kids choose between a red ninja, a white ninja and a black ninja.  The other big thing in the morning was our "Tribes" cartoon, where all the characters got together to battle a giant robot gorilla.  Which, of course, is somewhat how Summer Xtreme's videos ended, which again is pretty awesome because it all goes full circle back to when Madison's grade level was in kindergarten, and just starting with all this.

As mentioned earlier, we were pretty tired.  One staff member was already asleep on the couch after service, just a quick nap.  Daddy waited until we got home, and then took a pretty good nap there.  Madison was talking with friends online, and all of us were basically just lounging around the house. There are so many things to be done, but we weren't really that motivated.  This weekend, we're still physically recovering from two weeks of fourteen hour days, and in Daddy's case, there's this even coming up, Forward, and we've got to deal with that too.  Somewhere in all of this, a new series at KidPak is coming, and that's one related to "Toy Story."  So tonight we watched "Toy Story 3" again, taking notes and looking for messages within.  The first three movies have a whole lot of messages within, actually.  The material isn't the challenge - it's the amount of time left to write it.  There always seems to be something pressing to do, and it's easy to get overwhelmed.  One little thing at a time - that's the way we should tackle this all.  One small step at a time get you up the mountain.

We didn't have any dramatic storms tonight, so that was good.  Daddy took down the canopy last night, and it was like one of those scenes where the sailors are climbing the rigging during a massive storm at sea, with powerful winds violently throwing tree limbs back and forth, and the sky lighting up over and over again, letting us know that this storm was going to be a rough one.  We've had two nights in a row with that, and two days afterwards of debris all over the roads.  Fortunately, no power outages or trees down on houses.  But at the moment, it does seem scary.

We're almost done with "Science Fair," speaking of power outages.  The book has been a great one, with lots of humor and adventure.  The girls are enjoying it quite a bit - so is Daddy, who is glad to see they're liking this one.  The title and even cover don't have the immediate attraction of the "Neverland" books, and for years I've been telling them this one is pretty good - now they're hearing for themselves.

We read that tonight, and prayed tonight, and there were zerberts and hide-and-seek.  Mommy has all of these aromatherapy things set up now, and it's somewhat of a ritual before bed with all of these oils, but we did indeed sleep well through the night.  No storms helped in that.  But also helping was the fact that there was no huge Summer Xtreme camp to plan for, at least not for this week.  We're done with a pretty big chapter, and tomorrow we'll start writing a new one.

Summerween

This morning Buzz Lightyear did the old "circle game" trick on us.  This goes back a ways, where you try to get someone to look down at your hand through many devious means, and if that person sees you making the circle gesture, you get to thump them on the shoulder once.  Now, if the person is somehow able to poke the circle before you get it away from them, the roles are reversed:  it is your shoulder that gets pounded.  The rules aren't too clear about toys doing this to humans, so we'll have to wait until tonight when our eyes are closed and we're asleep, and THUMP!  We get pounded on the shoulder.

Last night, our eyes were closed and we were asleep.  But then the most incredible lightning storm in quite some time occurred.  Daddy literally thought there was an emergency vehicle parked somewhere outside, with strobing lights that kept blinking on and off into the room.  But it was the lightning.  And then came the storm - it was so rough it blew the canopy outside across the deck, bending the framework slightly.  The wind was immense and scary... and then it was gone.  All of this between 1 and 2 in the morning... yeah, not the greatest timing there.  But everyone else was asleep through it, believe it or not.  Madison was asleep.  Josh was in the guest room, fast asleep.  Even Mommy had no idea Daddy was downstairs, tracking the storm as it swept by.

This morning we woke up later, and this is primarily due to the crazy week we've had.  Mommy made all of us pancakes, including Josh, who was enjoying a nice breakfast with all of us.  But soon we were off to work for a bit, setting up for tomorrow.  Mommy was at some friend's house, having a nice time there.  But Daddy and Madison were of with Josh to the traditional post Summer Xtreme Ice Cream Gathering.

We'll have to come up with a better name for it.  Tradition is that those who are still alive from the exhaustive week join us at a certain time at the Mexican Ice Cream place, which is a lot easier to say for us than the Spanish name, which we can never remember.  But we always remember this:  it is the best ice cream in Hall County.  It has wondrous variety, and it's always a great time together.  That was the case this time around as well - it was a nice gathering.  We sat and talked of Summer Xtreme,  how well things went, and adventurous stories here and there.  It was a good time.

We went to spend some time with Mommy after that, over at the other house.  Madison was playing with some friends there, and Daddy was getting his hand scanned.  Apparently, a hand scan can diagnose a whole lot of symptoms.  I'm wearing my skepticals, but we'll see how things progress.  It's something Mommy is looking into called Essential Oils.

We got home and Madison practiced piano for a bit, and then got a bath.  We're watching the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." episode we missed last night, and after that, a few episodes of Gravity Falls, including "Summerween."  The reason?  Today is actually "Summerween," according to the Gravity Falls calendar.  Perhaps we'll watching something else spooky after that - maybe "Toy Story of Terror."  We'll see.  After that, early bed for sure.  That includes reading more from "Science Fair," our devotional, and prayers - it should be a nice, restful night here.  And perhaps... a spooky one!

SX19 Gwinnett: Day Three

So here we are on the final day of Summer Xtreme, at least for Madison this year.  In fact, this is her last one as a student, so there's a bit of bittersweet here.  The girls above are Gainesville kids, all going to the Gwinnett Summer Xtreme this year, all good friends of Madison.  And look who they are holding on to?  Daddy brought along some Toy Story friends, because today, everyone was off to the movie theater to watch "Toy Story 4."

Daddy is over there to the left.  And there's Mary Shannon, Isaac, and Parker from our Spartanburg campus.  We go down the street to Sugarloaf Mills, where there is this pretty large AMC theater.

Daddy got there early with the others, and we prepped all the seats with popcorn and drinks, and then sat down to watch the movie together in two different auditoriums.  The one auditorium was really large, but it still couldn't fit all our kids.  That's how many we had, plus a few others...

As for the movie itself, it was a definite step down from the previous three, but still a good movie.  Daddy got to sit with Madison and her friends, along with a ginormous bucket of popcorn and a drink  container that was considerably bigger than the size of a human-sized bladder.  By the way, the very first movie that Madison saw in theaters... was "Toy Story 3," way back on July 1, 2010.  Here's Madison and her friends, ready to watch "Toy Story 4."

Still, the bathroom trips for everyone were limited, because all eyes were on the screen.  No one wanted to miss a thing.  We planned bathroom trips extensively before the movie so we would avoid those constant interruptions.  Between that, and everyone wanting to watch the movie, things went smoothly.

Getting back for the final day was great.  It was more relaxed, and the worship extended quite a bit, which is always great to hear.  Daddy and the others did our "KidPak Singers" skit, which was pretty huge.  I'll never forget all the kids in the audience chanting, "Here's your coffee, here's your tea and here's your paper bag - bleh!"

The message was just as good as it was last week - all the messages and speakers were the same this week as they were last, so there was a bit of a repeat for Madison, and anyone else who was joining us again.

The change of plans was for the Tribe Wars, of course, which just goes to show you how amazing last week's Raptor victory was.  None of this is staged or rigged - the evidence of this is that Madison's grade level had not won in any year leading up to this last week.  Today, the Sabretooth Tribe won, and that Shark tribe?  They didn't even place this week, this after both Raptors and Sharks tied for first place on Wednesday.  The Raptors placed in third, and that wasn't a huge letdown for Madison, who was still feeling high from last week's triumph.

The big thing today was the service itself, the messages, the friendships, the positive impact on all these kids' lives.  These camps were a huge success, from start to finish.  This was one of the smoothest years we've ever had.  And although we are exhausted from late hours and lots of work, the stress level was remarkably lower this year, because things just fell into place in such a wonderful way.  This is not to say there weren't hiccups:  there was a bus that wasn't working this morning, and there was a rainstorm yesterday, and there were a few teenage volunteers the first week that needed correction.  But beyond that, things went so very well that we can all hang our heads high.  Of course, that's not entirely on us:  God Himself was making this camp a huge success.  There were so many kids in the altars, and there were some that were making first-time decisions to live for Jesus.  That's what it's all about, and that's exactly what happened.  It's what we as parents care most about, more than excursions or Tribe Wars.  It's what the week is all about, and that is one of the biggest reasons why we can say that these past two weeks have been Summer Xtreme's best ever.

SX19 Gwinnett: Day Two

Our second day of Summer Xtreme in Gwinnett started out well, although the rain forecast today made things a bit sketchy.  But the service indoors was fantastic - we've got so many kids for this location that we have to move things to the main sanctuary to fit them all in.  This opens up all kinds of possibilities for lighting, and for the visuals and the sound of course.  It really makes it more "xtreme."

Daddy literally wrote this skit at 5:30 am this morning.  The weight of this one was bearing down, and we had one thing in mind - but that just wasn't settled so much.  And so, we tried something new, and it was really effective.  Daddy has been a character named "Frank" all week on video, a guy in a gorilla suit.  In this skit, he's representing worries and stress, and Calvin is representing on stage a guy who hasn't gone to pray each morning.  It was goofy fun, but it had a clear message and some comedy behind it.  It worked well, with kids laughing a lot!

There was a lot of laughter here too, as everyone went outside to enjoy the water inflatables set up in the parking lot.  It was our water day, and we were out there for about an hour before the water started to come down from above too!

Here's Pastor Lance, Madison and the girls just standing out there in the middle of a downpour!  As you would imagine, everyone was soaked by the end, even if they weren't riding on anything.  The squirt guns were everywhere, and the kids were having a great time.

But we decided to head inside after a bit and take advantage of that ginormous screen in the main auditorium.  Once the kids went inside and dried off, we all went to the auditorium and prepared for our movie day tomorrow by watching "Toy Story 3" on the big screen.

I forgot how great of a movie this one is.  Look how Buzz Lightyear is checking out the audience here.  Anyway, we all sat together - adults and kids - and were completely taken in by this movie.  It was funny how the adults were all completely sucked in too!

After the movie was over with, it was time to head home again.  It's a longer drive home, even more so for Josh, who spends the night with us during Summer Xtreme.  It's been good, but we're all pretty tired, and some of us have been sick.  There's been a few things going around, as things tend to do with these camps.  Camille got strep, something some of the other kids have had.  But even more than that, the long hours - at least fourteen hours per day - these add up.  It's cumulative, which is why we did our best to get to bed early tonight, all of us.  We read from our book "Science Fair," and another devotional entry.  And after that, it was time for prayers, zerberts, and a good night's rest.

SX19 Gwinnett: Day One

Gwinnett's Summer Xtreme started today on a good note, with a great service in the morning, with the same super energy - just a different location down in Gwinnett.  Yes, we had to get up quite a bit earlier for this, but Madison couldn't wait.  For one thing, she was paired up with some really good friends in her group.  Also, there's something really fun about Summer Xtreme, no matter where it is.

The worship service was fantastic, as were the other parts of the service, including the Tribe Wars game, which saw the Raptors win yet again.

And due to sudden changes in cast, Daddy penned a new script for a bit of a script, one that used volunteer actors from the audience, and a bit of a mad-lib.

I love that backdrop, don't you?  It was as if these guys were really inside a throne room!  The skit went well, as did the rest of the service too.  It's a smaller crowd, only a couple hundred for this one.  And they don't fill up all the seats in the main sanctuary, so it actually seems like a smaller crowd than what it really is.  But it's fun - it's just a different sort of energy than what we have in Gainesville.

Our first excursion for Summer Xtreme Gwinnett was Stars and Strikes in Dacula!

Here you can see the girls getting ready to do some bowling.  Madison did well, although she didn't get a strike today.  It's okay, because she hasn't bowled in a while.  We may try it again soon though, and maybe bring everyone you see above along with us.  Daddy hasn't bowled in a long time, and I don't know if he'd do that well either!

The girls were on the bumper cars too - pretty much the first thing they did when they got here.  All three had fun bumping each other, and then ambushing others from behind!

This is a fun little ride in each of the Stars and Strikes locations.  Madison makes it a point to do this one at each place, going for a ride on these at the Cumming location last week.  Yes, we've been-there, done-that with Stars and Strikes this summer!

She had fun today, doing a couple games like the one that tests your strength.  Ever since that one episode of "Gravity Falls," this attraction now has a bit of a draw.  But her favorite thing just might be those bumper cars.

It was a good day today, despite taking an odd road there.  Daddy was there for a bit, and even got to play another round of "Jurassic Park" with Josh.  As usual, the mission is to take some pictures there and interact with everyone.  Here's a fun picture of Madison, with Rex photobombing in the back.

Ah, it seems that photobombing is back in again - here below is Madison with her friends Joy and Emma Brooke, with Courtney doing a photobomb behind:

It was a good start to Summer Xtreme.  As said before, the numbers are much lower here, so the lines were shorter and the kids were able to do more.  Also, they got their food a lot quicker too!

After returning back again, it was straight to dismissal, followed by the always amusing rapid exodus north to the main campus.  We all had service tonight, and so as soon as we were set up for things tomorrow in Gwinnett, we were out the door, racing north to Gainesville.

We had a good service there, with Daddy putting together a invention skit for the kids, and a great message about becoming what it is God wants us to become.  Madison was there tonight, and as soon as service was over, we were all racing out of there to go home and get a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow is the next day of Gwinnett Summer Xtreme, and tomorrow is going to come pretty early again!

Setting for up Gwinnett SX19

Okay, this is a terrible picture, but it was take really quick with the laptop, one that was taken about twenty seconds after Madison went out to the mat.  All the kids are getting their gear into their bags and coming back.  And it takes them all so long.  But Madison is always out there first and really fast, so much that there really is no comparison.  It's fun to watch.  And it's the same when she puts on the gear and when she takes off the gear.  She's always first out there to the mat!

Today we raced north to get to taekwondo practice, and made it just in time.  We spent the day in Gwinnett, preparing for Summer Xtreme at their campus, and it took a bit of work.  There was plenty of decorating to do, but a lot of reformatting with the material going on different shaped screens, plus a lot of new printed material and yeah, a new script Daddy was working on for tomorrow.  Madison was along for the adventure today, but she was mostly in Stardew Valley, playing that game on the Switch that she brought along.

The rain was heavy today.  We were working in a quiet area, watching the rain outside, sitting in peace as we prepped for the next day, tomorrow.  Occasionally, we'd go upstairs to the main office area, where things were  bit more hectic.  But Daddy was enjoying the serene atmosphere downstairs with Madison in the nice comfy chairs by the windows, actually getting a lot down there.

It was a good day today, but a busy one.  We'll get to sleep early tonight, as we have an early day tomorrow.  Mommy is watching the President do what I think is his first campaign rally of the season (yikes), and Madison is eating a bit.  We'll read some and do our prayers in a bit, but tonight is going to be an early night for all of us, given all that's about to happen.  It's going to be a great event - here we go again!

Aladdin

We finally got to see "Aladdin" today, a relaxing day where we tried to "rest up" between Summer Xtreme events.  Tomorrow, we get back to some intense work, but today was a day to kick back a little.  We slept in.   The first showing of "Aladdin" was at about 1:15pm, and that was our first thing of the day, other than making the bed and so on.  But off to the movies we went, and we actually really enjoyed this one a lot.  This one did a great job of telling the story without all that "matching the cartoon shot-for-shot" stuff that can be somewhat annoying.  If you're going to match everything shot for shot, why bother making the movie at all?  I'm looking at you, "Beauty and the Beast."  Anyway, it was a great movie with really good choreography, costumes, cinematography, actors, and music - the only thing, of course is the genie.  We miss Robin Williams, and there is no way anyone can ever do it any better.  But the new actor did a great job across the board.  The singing just wasn't what we've grown accustomed to for the past twenty-something years of listening to these songs.  I think that just takes some getting used to!  But again, we loved the movie.

Afterwards, we were off to taekwondo again, after missing an entire week due to Summer Xtreme.  

You can see a blurry Madison here, in a screen capture from the exercise portion of the evening, always enthusiastic and ready to go.  She had a great night, although a little rusty from a week off.  They're getting ready to earn a new stripe soon, so she knows she has to get back into the swing of things.  She's doing that, and of course will be back at practice tomorrow evening as well.

Tonight we were reading from "Science Fair" again, and the girls are really loving this book a lot.  We read from the devotional, and say our prayers, and there are still zerberts. But everyone was tired - it's a cumulative effect from the last few weeks catching up with us.  We all slept well tonight.

Relaxing Father's Day

We were back at the church today, having a great time with the ol' "KidPak Singers" skit, something Daddy saw waaaaay back when at a camp when he was in high school, or maybe even middle school.  Anyway, it went over really well, and was pretty funny.  It's somewhat difficult to describe, with different people having different jobs and associated chants that sort of all work together at the same time in a pretty goofy way.  We had a big line of people up there, and it was just a lot of fun, and it sort of went with our bottom line a bit - all the parts working together.

It was a funny atmosphere this morning, with the church not quite as full as it was all week long, almost like it was a library event or something.  We had to work a bit harder to get that energy up with the kids, which could be related to the fact that many of them are completely wiped out from a long week of activity.  Adults were exhausted too, including this one who is typing:  I took a pretty long nap this afternoon!

But before that big nap, there was a really nice meal cooked up by Mommy to celebrate Father's Day. We got to relax a little together, and even after the nap, we were on the couch, relaxing, and watching "Toy Story" once more.  Part four is coming out Friday, and we'll be getting caught up the next few nights.  Also, Daddy is taking a lot of notes - we're going to do a "Toy Story" series at KidPak, so I was watching the movie with a little notebook.  It's still a classic.  And it's amazing when you think of the technological achievement that the movie is.

Afterwards, Madison was playing one of her new gifts, "Stardew Valley."  This could be her new addiction, but I'm not sure yet.  The game seems to be a homage to "Harvest Moon," and if that's the case, then we may need some occasional intervention here and there.  Daddy was so addicted to "Harvest Moon 64," the closest thing you could compare it to was a fever that you just had to "ride out."  Fortunately with that game, an uncle comes and there's sort of an end.  But until you get to that point, I remember being up late, making sure crops were watered, cows were taken care of, and so on.  A few years later, a game called "Farmville" came out on social media, and Daddy was basically inoculated, having already been through "Harvest Moon."  There's something super addictive about farming games - it's very interesting!

Anyway, it was a relaxing day today, a day to rest and get our energy built up again.  We have another Summer Xtreme coming this week, and there's so much to do again.  But for now, we're resting, and celebrating Father's Day as well.

Good night!

We Have a Teenager

This afternoon we had a birthday party, if you can believe that.  I say "If you can believe that," because Madison is now officially a teenager as of today, and we're like, "What?"  How could this happen so fast?  Well, like it or not, it's here!

Look who all showed up to celebrate too!  Madison wanted a simpler birthday party, one where her friends came over and everyone went swimming afterwards, and that's what she got.  For one thing, we were completely zonked from Summer Xtreme, and really didn't have the time this week, or the energy to do anything super creative.  But Mommy made the cupcakes and got the decorations, and the flower leis, and everything was just fine.  We had friends from church, and friends from school over too, and it was just what Madison was hoping for.  There were even plenty of birthday gifts!

Madison got some fun cards, and some nice gifts as well, but I think the greatest gift of all is simply this:  an afternoon with her friends, just hanging out together.

Afterwards, as promised, they went to the pool.  Mommy, Daddy and one of the parents from church were with us, seated at a table with an umbrella, while the girls went to the pool to have fun.  

It was a really nice time.  And it went by so fast, actually!  Everyone seemed to be having a great time though, and there was even somewhat of a food fight afterwards on the back porch.  A few of the girls were putting cupcakes in each other's faces, getting big laughs - and big messes!

It was a nice party.  Mommy and Daddy got Madison a book from Gravity Falls, and there were other gifts as well, but the biggest thing for all of us was this:  a nice day together.  Madison got just that.

Tonight, when they were gone, finally after seven days, we got to sit back and rest.  We did some reading, and praying, but as you might suspect, sleep came rather easy for all of us...!