Camp Lodge Dedication

Saturday morning we drove down and spent time at the Florida Methodist Warren Willis youth camp in Leesburg. Barnett Lodge which serves as the hub of the camp (offices, dining halls and fellowship hall) had been completely gutted earlier this year and then renovated and expanded.

The boys saw it gutted when we were there for clergy kids camp in January and wanted to see how the new building would look. Today was the official dedication and we wanted the boys to be part of this historic day in camp history.

We arrived about 10am which gave us plenty of time to take a tour of the new facilities and wander around a bit for ourselves. We were very impressed with what we saw. They retained some of the charm of the original structure (especially in the Fellowship Hall) and seamlessly added in new details that don't feel too "new" or overbearing.

A new courtyard area in the middle of the lodge as you walk up.



New administration wing on the left in front of the fellowship hall.




New expanded dining hall wing with four dining rooms instead of two.




New porch on outside of fellowship hall.



New windows along the back of the fellowship hall open up the view of the lake.



Original fireplace still intact.




Stage area is the same with a new hardwood floor....beautiful new chairs.




Rocking chair porch moved and with new chairs.



View of the rocking chair porch from the new terrace area.




The new terrace area with lots of benches.



The boys could not be at camp without checking out the dock, and the cross on the water.







View from Graham Sapp Chapel. There's a new retention pond created around the trees between camp and the lake. There's a four square court out there in the middle and plans call for a small foot bridge over to it.




Benches for morning devotions moved closer to the lake because of the retention pond.




The official worship service of dedication was held at 11:15am in the Fellowship hall. Besides all the official conference staff and camp staff there were several other pastors and families - plus in attendance were all 112 of the college students serving on Leadership Team who will be facilitating children's and youth camps this summer starting on Monday. Debbie served on Team and lived at camp the summer of 1997.

After worship, we gathered in the dining halls and enjoyed a really great lunch. Definitely not camp food (beef burgundy and grilled chicken) but served in true camp style!

A few more pictures before heading home.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Surprise Trip

Sunday afternoon we were at home trying to relax after a busy morning of worship (it was Pentecost after all!). Daryl surprised us by suggesting we take a quick trip down to Orlando. He found us a great deal on a hotel room through hotwire.com and off we went.
We ended up staying at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, just a little ways south of I4 at the Downtown Disney exit. We checked into our room and then we wandered around the hotel a bit. The boys liked the pool area especially.

Then we headed over to the Crossroads Plaza for some putt-putt golf at Pirate Cove. We wanted to try and squeeze it in before the rain started (tropical storm Beryl). We managed to fit in 18 of our 36 holes and grabbed a rain check for the rest.  On Captain Kidds' Course, Daryl shot 48, Debbie shot 49, Parker shot 83 and Wesley shot 99.

Dinner was back at our hotel at the Applebees in the lobby.....because kids of hotel guests ate for free! Then we finished up the day with a dip in the pool and the hot tub with the boys.
We didn't set an alarm for Monday morning and after waking up about 8:30am, we got ready and headed out to grab breakfast at Chik-fil-A across from our hotel. Then it was time to finish up our putt-putt adventure while the sun was still shining. The last 18 holes were Blackbeard's Challenge. We did much better: Daryl shot 46, Debbie shot 52, Parker had shot 69, and Wesley finished up with 70.

The boys got pirate goody bags when we finished up and then we took some time to shoot off the "cannons" at the "sharks" in the lagoon. Just as we headed back to the car, the rains opened up.

 

 

The rest of the day was spent wandering around doing some window shopping at Mall of Millenia, IKEA and Orlando Premium Outlets. We grabbed lunch in IKEA and here's the boys splitting a huge piece of chocolate cake for dessert!




We finally left Orlando a little after 7pm and got home about 8:30pm. It was a nice little getaway for Memorial Day.

End of Season

 

Tonight was Parker's last soccer game. It wasn't the end of his season - the Jaguars still have one game to go - but we will be in Leesburg next Saturday. 

It was 95 degrees out tonight at 5:30pm when they started playing! Parker played hard - at one point he got the ball almost all the way down the field towards his goal before it was stolen by the opposite team. 

Parker's record for the games he played in? 2 - 3 - 1

That's two wins, three losses and one tie

Not a bad record for his first time playing soccer, and

 the first time playing a team sport where they actually kept score. 

A Little Stress Relief

This little guy visited Debbie at the office on Thursday. He greeted her in the church parking lot by falling on her ankles and then followed her right into the building. It was a couple hours before they could track down the owner and have her come retrieve the cat, but in the meantime this super friendly tabby cat provided some much needed stress relief. If he wasn't sitting on her desk, the cat was sitting in Debbie's lap - purring loudly the whole entire time.

In This Family We Tell It Like It Is

Even at school......

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Garden Fresh

The boys got a huge kick out of visiting the church garden after worship today to see how things have progressed in growing. There are peppers, beans, squash, okra and tomatoes growing. There were a few cherry tomatoes that were ripe and ready to pick which would have spoiled before the food pantry folks came in this week. So we picked a few for a fresh snack this afternoon at home. Yum! 

War Wounds

Is it any wonder when he does stuff like this.....

That he ends up with war wounds

like these?

The red abrasion on the far left is leftover from over a week ago when he fell face first running through the movie theater parking lot. The green mark just above the eyebrow is from Friday when he ran into the corner of the foyer bookcase. And the large lump in the middle of his forehead is from falling off the jungle gym at the park yesterday.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone