BLUEBERRY FEST PART DUO!

I LOVE BLUEBERRY FEST!

My family are those kind of people that say something is a tradition once we like something. Well, needless to say, blueberry fest is one of those traditions. Every year we can, we are in Nacogdoches to try out their blueberry goodness. My family even made dorky... i mean awesome t-shirts that were blue and superhero-ish. On the back each of us had a name that had to do with blue or berries or both. My name was "The Incredible Blueberry" (yes i stole that from incredible hulk). We also had names like "Blue Lantern," "Captain Blueberry," "Wonder Blueberry," and "Aqua-Berry." Then the shirts said, "SAVING THE WORLD WITH BLUEBERRY GOODNESS." Oh and our van also said this in blue, and it was called the blueberry-mobile. Get it, Bat-mobile, blueberry-mobile...

Anyways, this year my family put aside special time to go! So what's so grand about blueberry fest? Well, it has blueberries and is a festival. What's not to like? But really, there are little stands everywhere that you can buy things from; there are blueberry pancakes; there are blueberry treats; there is free water; and there is Cowboy Max! My family got to see Cowboy Max's show this year and my dad actually participated. Cowboy Max whipped something out of my dad's had whilst my dad was blindfolded and Cowboy Max was "blindfolded." In other words, Cowboy Max said he'd be blindfolded, but he wasn't.

But back to the blueberries. Sadly, my family missed out on blueberries. We waited too long to buy them and then tried to pick them and the farm closed on us. I was so sad. I love blueberries. So next time we go (hopefully next year), we will go right after our blueberry pancakes.

So, I probably could have merely typed I LOVE BLUEBERRY FEST, and y'all would have gotten the gist, but this was more fun! I hope you enjoyed. Now here are some pictures:

Playing with H20 and Reflections--All while eating cake!

The title pretty much sums it up. Hope you like!
Oh one little note, reflections are my favorite to play with!!! If you are even an amateur-like me- photographer, you can still get awesome pics w/ reflections and macro (little flower) mode! (THE LAST ONE IS MY FAV)

Putting my science into practice. Using the stickiness of water to my advantage.

This one beats all!!! Ok, if you look really closely, and i mean REALLY, you can see Kaila upside down. AHHH!!!! Water is so cool, reflections are so cool, life is so cool!!!! REHANGA NEMURENGE (spelling is wrong): GOD IS SO GOOD!

Our Monthaversiary Already Passed???

Weird title aye? You may be wondering who I shared this blessed "Monthaversiary" with. Well, I shared it with more than 183 people. That's right. My Monthaversiary (by the way, that word is credited to Mandy, thanks ;-D) is with Summit Ministries' very own session 4 group (which you can check out at summit.org. Go check it out!).
If any of you have hung out with me since I’ve been home, then you know how much this camp means to me. Although I try not to overwhelm you with all my fun stories and lessons learned, I can't help but talk about them. They have forever changed my life and I will never be able to repay them.
I don't know where to start or how to end, nor do I know if I will ever fully disclose the wonderful tales of our adventure, but I am determined to try. As this year progresses, I hope to have many a post that mentions or is dedicated to The SUMMIT.
We will start with day one:
The first day, I got up at before light graced the world to arrive to the airport on time. I showered and didn't believe it was already time for Summit. Life had seemed to fly by for the last three months when I first signed up. Well, needless to say, I was so exhausted from getting up early to catch my plane, then driving two hours from my airport to Summit. When my friend, Debbs, and I arrived, we were greeted by the girls at the front desk who kindly told us we were on the 4th floor. I was about ready to leave right then. You see, both Debbs and I had brought over 50 lbs in luggage, in fact, we probably brought 140 lbs combined... AHHH! Well, on our way out to get it we met three nice gentlemen who kindly offered to take ALL of our bags up all four flights of stairs. They literally saved our lives. *SIDE NOTE* for those of you who have never flown to Colorado from a flat, humid, hot... place: They actually have elevation! And it hurts. Your lungs fill like they are going to explode!
Continue.
We got to our room and realized we were in a suite with 8 other girls (excluding us two). That was exciting! More exciting than I can put into words.
Well, Debbs and I took a few minutes in town (Manitou Springs--Said like Man-i-tou Springs, Colo-rado BY DOC) to transition our minds into this new wonderful place. Also, to get ready for the swarms of people we'd meet in the next few hours. Little did we realize that to get back to Summit, you must trek up a very steep hill!!! After we survived the trek, I thought I could take on world! So we did. We went and introduced ourselves to probably 80 something people. Several of them that were to be my best friends in less than two weeks.
Here are some of the names of those people and a short word or phrase that described how we met:

Caitlin: room. First camper I met
Ellen: "hey, I have that shirt!"
Nathan: cards, under the table ;-)
Bradley and Dustin: that stupid random fact game
Cortney, Staci, and Kaylene: Suite mates.
Aysia and Joelle: Roommates, best EVER!
Mallory: playing a game

The list goes on. Well, there is a small glimpse into our first day. There will be many more as I remember things, but for now if you want to see other's perspectives on the days at summit go to http://www.summit.org/blogs/conferences/student/colorado/2009/06/ and look at Session four day 1. By the way, I wrote day four! I'll post it here too.
I love and miss you guys at Summit.

SOME MEMORIES FROM THAT DAY:

Here we come Summit!

Room with a view??? I think so!

Manitou Springs..."Home of the hippies"

Blueberry Festival

BLUEBERRY FEST! That's right, I said BLUEBERRY FEST!
You may be wondering, what is a blueberry fest??? Well, here is what went down for us!
First, we woke up early. O.K. early as in I think we got up at 7:30.
We arrived at the festival around 8:00. We jumped in the line for blueberry pancakes, and an hour and five minutes later, we ate pancakes! Let’s just say they were really good pancakes. I heard that Bill White was even in the line, but I didn't realize it.

After our great pancakes, we walked around looking at little tents with cutsie shops in them. I bought a pair of GREEN sunglasses!

My mom and sister bought parasols, which they brilliantly used to protect them from the sun. I stupidly didn't. I have a striking sunburn now. It's pretty intense and hurt (actually hurts) an awful lot.

Cowboy Max was one of the best parts! He was a COWBOY and he had a lasso AND a bullwhip! He showed us some sweet lasso moves while we stood in our hour and five minute pancake line. He had young children jump into it while he was twirling it. Then he also twirled the lasso around himself at one point. However, my ultimate favorite trick he did was he gave my family a mini show! We missed his regular show, but he said he would give us a sneak peak. He said "I’ll be right back, I’m going to go get my bullwhip and whip something outa your (dad's) mouth." He came running back and handed my dad a carnation that was as long as my arm! He asked us "ladies, how brave would you say he is, on a scale from 1 to 10?" Of course we all said 10!!!!!! Well, poor dad. Cowboy Max slowly but surely stripped the carnation's stem down to only about a little longer than my hand. Then he carefully positioned my dad to hold the flower (although, he put it in his hand not his mouth). He took a couple cracks (meaning he whipped his whip and made a few jokes!), then he whipped it out of my dad's hand. It was quite impressive.

See the carnation?

Next, we walked into air-conditioning (which was quite a treat since I believe the temperature had been in the late 90s). We listened to some jazz and I really wanted to swing dance all of a sudden!
It was a really fun day filled with many other fun events (including me winning bingo, my family playing dominos at the hotel, and many other things).

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing a peak into blueberry fest. Hope to see you in Nachegdoches Texas for blueberry fest next year.

Growing Friends

A Poem dedicated to Amy:
So summer starts, and friends go miles apart; yet, they grow closer at heart. Yes, this is how summer starts. When life is fun, under the summer sun, we will never come undone. Days fly past, weeks grow fast, and still our friendship lasts. You are my friend, and I will love you till the end. Know that whatever comes our way, I will not stray.