SX19: Day One

The above is somewhat of a tradition now, the "First Picture of Summer Xtreme."  Basically, over the course of this week, between Daddy and the several other photographers, there are thousands of pictures taken.  This one above is the calm before the storm, the quiet moment before it all settles in - and boy, did it settle in big time!

Summer Xtreme 2019 is here, and it was the best ever.  During the week, there was no time to type out on the blog here - in fact, we were already behind because of all the work setting up.  But here we are a week later, and Madison will tell you it was the best ever.  You can see everyone practicing above, and the set of course is pretty amazing.

There you see the logos for the five tribes:  Rhinos, Sabretooths, Hawks, Sharks and Raptors.  Each represented a competing grade level, with Madison's being the Raptors.  Ironically, in the NBA Finals this year, the Raptors were competing for the championship.  But all that aside, when it came time to bring the kids in, the only thing that mattered this week was Summer Xtreme. 

You can see the auditorium full here, and just down the hall, there's another huge room filled with kindergarteners and first graders.  Down another hall, hundreds of pre-schoolers as well.  By week's end, we counted nearly 600 kids here for this camp.  That was a huge number!

The service was fantastic, as these always are.  It was a great start with an awesome opener - our mascots this year are hilarious:  inflatable versions of each tribe:  rhinos, raptors, sharks, hawks, and sabretooths.  But we couldn't find a sabertooth, so we got an inflatable sloth costume, and modified it.  Oh, and the hawk wound up being an eagle.  But it didn't matter, because these inflatable costumes were hysterical, and would pump up the crowd at the beginning with an opening ceremony dance - and then they'd be out there greeting, and in the videos as well.  Each day, these inflatable characters would show up on video to compete for points for their tribe.  Oh yes, there was a lot of gaming going on.

Each year since the beginning of this, Madison's grade level has never won the whole thing.  In fact, last year was one of the first years where this grade level won anything at all.  There are video battles, and there are on stage battles, and points awarded elsewhere also.  The inflatable characters battled on the screen through an obstacle course, and the hawks won that one.  But on stage, the stage was set for a battle unlike anything ever seen before.  Whipped cream on everyone's faces, and Fruit Loops flying everywhere!

The game winner was the team who had the most Fruit Loops stuck to their team captain on stage.  And after an intense battle, the stage was set once again, but in a more dramatic fashion:  because the Raptors won it all.  They didn't just squeak by, but instead, dominated with a thrilling performance.  The Raptors were in the lead, but it's a long week.  Still, there was hope because Madison's grade certainly started out on the right foot!

The rest of the service was filled with fun too, of course.  Here's Pastor Lance taking a selfie onstage with the rest of the crowd behind him.  Madison is just below his left hand over there, where she'd be seated the entire week.  The kids got to see part one of our ongoing skit, one where another character also takes a selfie:

Jojo did this last year, and we repeated it again this year because it turned out so well.  That was fun!

The cast did so well this entire week!  You can see them above, listening to Dawn as she holds the "fun stick."  By the week's end, the kids were calling out for the fun stick.  But another prop showed up, a tradition for the past four Summer Xtremes.  Behold the return of Lucille the Wrench!

The skit was great, and to think it all started back in April with a few of us you see on stage, planning and coming up with some of the ideas that happened throughout the week.  It got a lot of big laughs, and throughout the week, each skit was tied directly to that bottom line we'd be preaching each day.  Speaking of which, look who was speaking on Monday.

Pastor Bart brought a great message to the kids, starting the week off with a powerful message about being unleashed.  That's the theme of the week:  "Unleashed."  This message was one that Daddy put together in March, if you can believe that.  Without really referencing it so much, it was based on the movie "Captain Marvel," even though we didn't really talk about that so much.  It was more about realizing your full potential, and knowing who you really are.

What was wonderful were the kids coming up to the altar for salvation at the end.  There were some we knew very well, and it was very emotional and rewarding to see already this soon into the week.

Afterwards, it was time to head to the halls.  Madison always takes time to pose for a picture with Jade.  Through the years, she's stopped to say hello to Jade, a super sweet person who has been helping out with our younger kids for quite some time.

Speaking of which, here's Madison with another volunteer - TJ.  He played the part of Jesus during our "Miracles" series.  You can see them all seated and ready to eat some pizza at our destination:  Stars and Strikes.

And here's Madison with her friend Jesse from taekwondo, and another friend as well.  The pizza was edible, but I don't think the kids cared so much.  They were ready to eat!  Also, here's a few other dignitaries:

We got together for a formal awkward picture, I think inspired by the President's recent trip to Asia, and how odd some of those world leader pictures can appear.  Here's a friendlier image:

Madison was with her friends having a great day today.  She was bowling for a bit, and also riding on the bumper cars too.  She did plenty of games, and had a great time.

But so did Mommy and Daddy!  We were playing the Jurassic Park game together, this for the first time since somewhere back in the 90's.  Back then, before we were married, we had played this game in an arcade together, getting all the way to the end.  That was a fun memory.  And Mommy is pretty good, as you can see here:

This girl was pretty impressed.  Actually, everyone was.  We had a perfect round, one where neither of us took a hit, while simultaneously taking down the T-rex that kept lumbering up towards us.  We had a great time together back in Jurassic Park, and all the kids around us were cheering us on.  Lots of fun!

We returned for the day afterwards, and after that the traditional huge dismissal and pick-up process for the kids.  It was raining on us a little outside, but that was okay because it was an indoor day.  The weather this week was perfect.  "Perfect" is a little too general of a word to use.  We'll go with "supernaturally perfect."  I can't begin to describe how perfect it was - the context of it all is that there was a forecast for rain, and lots of it for half the week.  But that's not how things turned out.  It was amazing.

Anyway, we got home late, as you would expect.  And also as you would expect, we were pretty wiped out.  We had done a lot actually after dismissal, all the teams scurrying this way and that to set up the next day, or clean up from this day.  But everyone worked well together, and we handled all the issues, and went to bed at a reasonable time, ready to take on Day Two!