SX19: Day Four

Day Four started with the same amount of energy and screaming as all the others, with an incredible worship set, just like all the others, and then all that followed in service.  It certainly lived up to the "xtreme" part of the name.  Yes, we know there's supposed to be an "e" at the beginning of "xtreme."  But we're too xtreme to worry about that right now.

Anyway, we got in early, as we've been doing.  As the week goes on, it gets harder and harder to get there early, but we walked across the parking lot along with all the other volunteers, and everyone got to their stations.  It was "go time!"

The kids were super excited, filled with all kinds of energy.  The worship was passionate, but then things when things turned towards the competitions, there was just so much noise as each tribe was cheering super loud.

All the tribes get so much into it each year, dressing up with extra items that match the color of their team, or in Madison's case, hold up posters.  She loves making posters for her tribe.  But we also had ordered these dinosaur hats too - you can see Madison with the poster, and the girl next to her with one of the Tribe's dinosaur hats:

The Raptors were definitely all-in when it came to team spirit.  Madison was so super competitive, even she's not the one directly competing.  It's all the team leaders up there on stage.   Points were given out elsewhere, but with the stage games, it was the Raptors on Monday and the Sharks on Tuesday.  Who got the points today?

It was both the Raptors and the Sharks!  By the day's end, both teams were tied, shutting out all the other Tribes completely.  This week was highly unusual, as it was shaping up to be a duel between two Tribes all the way.  It is so tense, because it could go any direction at this point.  The Hawks could actually win tomorrow, as they've been winning points in the videos as well.  But we'll see - it all comes down to tomorrow, and everyone is pretty amped up about it.  These are not fixed at all - at least not anymore.  There was one controversial year, but this year is not that.  And so there's a lot of nervous energy for the Raptors:  they really want this, and it's their last chance to get to it!

The message today was about "The Secret Place," and that ended our service on a really strong note today.  It was about prayer, and about where we find our power and strength.  You can see Madison praying, just to the right side there in this black and white photo:

And of course there was the skit too, which also talked about finding that secret place.  This picture below is a traditional backstage photo taken with a cellphone.  The actors are all ready to go, just before marching out that curtain to perform. 

They did really well today, again.  The story advanced, leading up to a big climactic moment tomorrow where we find out some surprising twists.  In the meantime, today offered some fun laughs and lessons, and a bunch of mosquito bites on Isaac's arm, that when you use as a connect-the-dots, make the shape of Abraham Lincoln.

Our destination was Frances Meadows Aquatic Center.  We have such a great relationship with them that they actually let us in the water park, and then made us all go out of the park again, even those who were already in the water, and then line up single file again just so they could count us all over again.  This took a bit of time to do, eating away at the kids time in the pool, and reminding us of how much fun it is to deal with the management there.  But the kids did get into the pool after this, and they had a good time!

Madison was diving off the diving board, and going down the slide too.  She was in the big pool, and in the lazy river as well.  She spent a lot of time with all her friends today!

And the weather was nice outside today.  The forecast had been for a rainy week, and look at the sunny skies we had today.  The temperature started out colder this morning, and it was hard to imagine actually going swimming in weather like this.  But with the sun out, the temperature got much warmer and the kids had a great time, even if the water was a bit cooler.

And we didn't have any incidents this year, which was a good thing of course.  Madison wasn't with her group for a good part of the day, but instead with some others from taekwondo, just hanging around and going from pool to pool, or down the slide.

It was a good time.  Daddy had to leave to create the handouts, but as you can see, he was able to snap a few photos of Madison along the way.  She was having a great day!

After getting back to the church, it was time for that arduous dismissal process.  It was better today than the previous ones, although a bit hot outside.  Afterwards, we met, planned out things for tomorrow, and got home as soon as we could so that we could get to bed early.  After doing some reading tonight, we were all in bed rather quickly.  It's a pretty big week!