For those of you who don't know- the Crimson Tide has been at the mercy of the BCS gods for the past 2 weeks now, and our national championship hopes still lie in their hands. Before leaving for the mountainous rain forest of Costa Rica last Friday, I posted a Facebook status about last weekend being the best weekend to be away from access to college football because it "wasn't going to be that exciting." I know, I know...I should know better by now. When I returned Sunday afternoon and realized that anyone relevant to our season except LSU lost, I was shocked/ecstatic. Regardless of whether or not the BCS is the best system, it sure does make things exciting! At this point, all Alabama can do for themselves is beat Auburn this weekend...and if we manage to let those barners beat us- then we deserve to have our season ruined. Remember Iron Bowl 2010, Tide fans! It's time for revenge. Keep those title dreams alive and Roooooooooooooll Tide Roll! I'd take an Arkansas win on Friday, too...
In the meantime, we hosted the winter Olympics right here in Santa Ana, Costa Rica last Wednesday evening. That's right- YoungLife brought a little taste of winter to the now summer in Costa Rica complete with ice skating and bobsledding...on a Crisco covered tarp and soon-to-be-ruined socks. It was both the coolest and greasiest thing I've ever seen, and I'd do it again tomorrow if someone wanted to. We had speed skating, partner skating, Disney on Ice, bobsledding, and some epic falls. The most amazing thing about all of this was it was all indoors. Sounds crazy, right? YoungLife is a little crazy...check it out.
The Ice Rink
People take to the Crisco ice
Partner skate champions
Bobsled Building
Then, on Friday, we loaded up two buses of middle school students from 7 different international schools and took off for a weekend of WyldLife camp in the mountains/rain forest. This camp, La Montana Christain Camp, was incredible. We started off Friday night with a surprise roller skating session straight out of my own elementary school days...disco ball lights and all. Saturday, we did a high ropes course in the middle of the rain forest, went to the lake- where there was a huge water slide, a water trapeze, and a trampoline-, then we did a military style mud obstacle course in chest-deep mud, and then we had a dodgeball tournament. Talk about a long day. Throughout the weekend, I led a cabin of 8th grade girls who opened my heart to middle schoolers in a whole new way. I also created and scripted characters for meal program and club program...I was constantly in and out of costumes, switching accents, and making sure supplies were ready for whatever aspect of program came next. What sounds like absolute chaos actually ran like a well-oiled machine; no thanks to myself- only God could pull something like this past weekend off. The British rock star sensations, Freddy VanWalen (Me) and Dingo Starr (Nicki) rocked 4 clubs like it was 1975. The scooter-riding nerds, Beatrice (Alex) and Barb (Me), saved camp from muscleman record-breaker, Rex (Olen), by breaking a Guinness World Record of their own after several failed attempts. Everything about camp makes me smile now looking back...For those of you who can appreciate a classic YL skit: I hosted a "WyldLife's Got Talent" show on Saturday night where each cabin performed a YL classic. My cabin combined with a guy's cabin to perform the most epic "Pass It Down" skit possibly ever done- 16 people and a dog. I have never been so proud of 13 and 14 year olds. Anyways, enough writing- take a look at the pictures...
Hanging upside down rather than skating
Getting ready for the ropes course!
Not your average ropes course...
My group on low ropes challenges
At club!
Freddy VanWalen & Dingo Starr
The lake and its activities
Water Swing
Retoselva (Jungle Challenge)
Nasty guys after finishing
Scooter soccer...with plungers
With Lindsey and Ali
Ugly, right?
Leadership 2011-2012
After returning from the craziest 48 hours of my life, we had an extra day with the camp speaker and his wife, David & Carol Morgan- complete bad-a's by the way-, whose flight wasn't until Tuesday. What would you do with 24 hrs. in Costa Rica? We took off for the beach at 7 am Monday morning! Our original destination was Playa Hermosa, and after accidentally ending up in Puntarenas, we settled for an afternoon at Jaco beach. The weather was awesome, there were iguanas everywhere, I busted open my first coconut all by myself, had an Imperial on the beach, ate fresh fish tacos, and had the best ice cream/coffee mixture you could possibly imagine. It was a GREAT day at the beach. Then, on the way home, we stopped on "crocodile bridge"- notorious for wild crocodile sightings- and there they were! About 7 or 8 crocs just bathing in the sun...
Jaco beach
Crocodiles
That's not all the wild life I saw last weekend. At camp, I saw howler monkeys and whatever these things are, too:
More than a few times this weekend, the thought that kept coming to my mind was, "This is where I freaking live...?" It's hard to believe sometimes when I'm in a harness in the rainforest, standing on a tropical beach, or looking down on a 15 foot crocodile. But it's true- this is where I live! God has blessed me with the opportunity of a lifetime, and I'm happy to share it with you.
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