St. Simons Part 2

So we took care of the whole RoofBag situation and took off down the road. The drive went pretty good and the dvd player was awesome! When the kids are watching a movie we have to listen to it because it is routed through the speakers but it was much nicer listening to it than 3 kids whining about the car ride :) It took us about 6 hours to get there. We arrived and quickly got into camp mode. We got all of our name tags, schedules, tshirts and stuff, unpacked, went for a walk and ate dinner. Then we dropped the kids off and went to our first chapel service. This years speaker was Brad Bird and he spoke on Romans 12; how we belong to God, we are part of God's body, and we are to love each other... of course it was a lot deeper than this but I am not going to type out all of my notes... haha. After chapel we got to break up into our small groups which is always a great way to get advice from other coaches (for Jake) and coaches wives (for me). There just happened to be a guy in Jake's group that had taught at Apalachee when Jake was there. After huddles we went to the adult fellowship, a time for the adults to eat snacks and socialize. We spent the first evening social talking with the guy Jake used to work with and his wife. They only live 30 from my parents house so I am hoping one of these days we can go down for a visit. The next mornig we were up at 6:30 and off to breakfast by 7am. From breakfast we took the kids to their groups and went to competition. Jake did a mixture of sports everyday from football, to kick ball, to softball, to his favorite volleyball. I also competed everyday with women coaches and coaches wives. I have to say that this year was much more competitive than last year. We played volleyball, wiffleball, kickball, and ultimate frisbee. After competitions we would go to a morning session. This years was called Balanced. It was about balancing finances. It was amazing! We only got to hear the first 3 lessons at camp and are doing the rest here at home (balancedonline.org you can watch the lessons and download the pdf's). After morning sessions was huddles, lunch then free time. Our first day of free time was spent napping. I had a headache and Jake was going to a class for FCA huddle leaders so the kids and I slept, it was the best 3 hour nap ever! The next day we went to the light house and the playground overlooking the ocean and then hit up Dairy Queen. Our last day of free time we went to the pool. After free time was supper, then break out sessions, chapel, adult fellowship and child pickup.

Oh and how can I forget Thursday night. Thursday night was date night. As we sat in the cafeteria waiting on the kids to finish eating a storm blew in. It poured and the wind blew and then it was over... so we thought! Jake and I dropped off the kids and headed out to eat. As we headed towards the bridge a HUGE storm appeared. It was raining in every direction, the wind was pulling the car up rom the road, it was hailing... it was scarey. We made it across the bridge. We were in a state of shock but we decided to go ahead and eat (at Five Guys and it was YUMMY!) then we walked around Target waiting on the storm to go away. When we felt it was safe to venture back out we went through the Chic-Fil-A drive through for a milk shake and then headed back to the camp. It was the night the kids were to perform and I was scared that the weather would cause us to miss out but we made it back in time... in time to find out the power was out in most of the buildings. We were asked to pick up Taryn and T and take them with us to watch the older kids sing. Instead of the kids singing infront of just parents in our evening chapel they were moved to the teen chapel because they had power. It was great! Hundreds of teenagers worshipping and then cheering for our kids on the stage. I believe some of the kids were a bit shocked. They were up on stage in front of hundreds of teens and perents and siblings but they did great.

It was a really fun week. It was exciting because this year we had 6 families from our area that were able to go! I know I had much more to say about camp but I will have to post more later as I think about it. There is just so much that happens during this time of relationship building, fellowship and worship.