Teen Camp 2010

This was our first time at camp as a married couple...what an adventure! We lucked out and had a room to ourselves...i guess that's what happens when you are the District Vice President and Secretary. Teen camp is just another opportunity for youth pastors to get together and act like kids...just kidding, well that is part of it. We had a great week spending time with the teens and other youth worker friends. One of the highlights of the week included: The Godfather of Love's return appearance and the debut of Her Hotness. This is a South Carolina district tradition that Andy has brought to South Florida and it is by far one of the best parts of camp. This year Ashley got to take part in the Love Doctor skit and debuted as Her Hotness. Basicly this is a time for teens to write love notes to the person they have a crush on and the Love Doctor...or The Godfather of Love reads them outloud and makes comments and gives the teens a chance to meet. We definitly got a laugh out of the letters and each other as we intertained the crowd. Superhero Night

Celebrating one of our teens birthday.

80's Night

The Godfather of Love and Her Hottness

Group Picture of our teens

Western Night

The joys of being married to a youth pastor...

As a result of the Haiti Earthquake, the teens wanted to help and decided to collect flip flops to send to Haiti. Their goal was to collect 500 and if they exceeded their goal and collected 750 Andy would shave his beard.
Flip Flop Sunday, the teens encouraged everyone to wear flip flops to raise awareness of the cause Flip Flops for Haiti.

Before Shot

And the shaving begins...

Mid Shot

The final result...looks like Earl from the tv show "My Name is Earl"

I love him...but hate the facial hair. Oh the things we do for ministry.

Sausage Toe

The toe adventure began in December when my toe randomly became swollen and extremly painful. After many doctor appointments and two rounds of antibiotics the physician diagnosed "sausage digit" and the toe was thereafter known as the sausage toe. Mid February we went to see a podiatrist after the antibiotics didn't work and of course I was freaked about the whole ordeal. Andy was cool as a cucumber and came along for comic relief. The doctor was so funny to play along with the prank we wanted to play on my parents who were visiting for the weekend. She even gave us this fake looking toe and put some fake blood on it to make them think it had to be amputated. I couldn't keep a straight face and they knew it was a joke.


"Dr." Andy examining my foot while we waited for the doctor.

Toe Shot

Andy trying to make me laugh.

Lunch with Mom and Dad

That night we played BINGO!

Andy won $250 playing Bingo.

Sanibel Island

To celebrate our 1st Valentine's Day as a married couple we went to Sanibel Island for the weekend. Below are some of the highlights from the trip.

Quality Time: It was so nice to spend the weekend together. We didn't answer phones, twitter or facebook and it was wonderful. Amazing how those things can be such a distraction. We had a great room....it was a special room that they didn't advertise, so we weren't too sure what we were getting into, but it was perfect for us. Just steps from the beach too!

Shopping: This isn't your traditional shopping where you go in a bunch of stores and buy a bunch of stuff. We really enjoyed being able to relax and not have to be anywhere at a certain time. We didn't rush in and out of stores. We found some really quant bookstores and some sweet antique shops.

Food: We ate lots of good food. Found some hole in the wall kind of places, which we like. We even found a coffe shop with the best carmel lattes!!! They were so good we went twice...it helped that it was close to everything and we were able to find it easily.

Shelling: We got up the last morning of our stay and walked to the beach and collected seashells. Sanibel Island is knows as the seashell capital of the world. The best time to find shells is

at low tide so we bundeled up and went out to see the sun rise and collect shells early in the morning. It was so much fun to see what kind of shells they have there, much different from Venice beaches.

The Bubble Room: This is a fabulous resturant and I highley recommend going there if you are ever on Sanibel or Captiva Island. We went for dinner and loved the atmosphere, food and dessert. The weather had been rainey the day we went and the resturant actually was without power, but remained open thanks to a generator. The food was delicous and huge portions. The resturant is decorated very randomly with a little bit of everything and all kinds of styles mixed in one. The highlight of the meal was the dessert. It was tough to make a decision after looking at the dessert tray, but we decided on a vanilla cake with orange cream cheese frosting and a brown sugar center. It was the most delicous cake I have ever tasted. I thought it tasted alot like our wedding cake, but Andy disagreed. Nonetheless it was delicous and worth the wait.

The adventures continue with...

...a SUPER packed house.

February is off to a great start and we wanted to share some pics from last night's packed house. We had the teens over for a Superbowl party! 32+ teens enjoyed food, fun and fellowship.

Note to self: Red Fruit Punch+teenagers+white carpet=not a good idea

Riley couldn't handle the excitement.

Part of the spread.

1/3 of the crowd in the dining room.

Host & Hostess

1/3 of the crowd were Saints fans in the living room.

One of the Colt's fans in the Guest room which was for the Colt's fans.

Adventures of Youth Ministry

The blog is back! The month of January was a busy time and there's just no way to include off of the adventures we experienced, but we wanted to share some of the highlights.

This picture pretty much sums it up. Youth ministry is exausting.

Ghetto Golf... Putt Putt on cement....interesting.

First youth retreat as a married couple.

Check out my new cup!

Being silly.

Andy and some of the teens taking a snack break.

The cooks from the weekend.

His Element Youth Ministry

One of the workers gave me free tokens....and i won a few tickets!

What was I thinking....?

Holding on for dear life.

The month of January was a busy time of youth activities. It began with our Sabbath Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN. We had a great time of rest and adventure with our teens. Ashley struggled with the 12 hour plus bus ride with a bunch of teenagers. Let's just say it was long ans smelly. We celebrated our one year anniversary on a youth trip, but it was amazing to look back ans see how the Lord has worked in our lives this past year. God has not only blessed us with each other, we are incredibly blessed with the teens we minister to. What a blessing it was to spend time with them and to see them worship together.