Mathews, VA

Let me be the first to put my foot in my mouth! I always gave the eastern side of the state (VA) a hard time because I haven't been that much of a fan of the flat land. But this weekend, after YEC I rode with Luke and Jacob to Luke's house in Mathews, VA. What an incredible time I had! God has blessed me so much with knowing the Davis family. Not only are they a blast to be around, but they are encouraging and uplifiting! :-)

We arrived around lunch time on Saturday and what a cRaZy day it was! When we arrived we all sat in the living room just chit-chatting and catching up on life. After mingling Marcus and Jacob went with Luke to see and ride the jet ski, while Adam, Joel, Mr. Davis, and myself finsihed a St. Nicholas puzzle while listening and singing along to positive and encouraging KLove. Simply sitting there in the kitchen with those men of God was wonderful. Once we finished we too made our way outside and checked out the jet ski. At that point Luke actually took me out and did a few tricks on it. All I knew was that my hair would get wind blown so appearance was out the window! That ride was a rush, literally with the wind blowing in your face and the cold water hitting the sides of the jet ski.

After briefly riding the jet ski our afternoon was filled with first exploring the red bus I had heard so much about! The Davis boys (Luke, Adam, and Joel) along with their good friend Kyle went in, bought, remodeled, and refurnished it into a type of RV-Bus thing--its by far one of the coolest things I've seen or heard of. Next we explored the premises around the house, and then took a trip down the road to the Davis' grandparents house. We poked around in their old barn, snooped around the back yard (which by the way opens up to the bay-spectacular view) and rummaged around the basement (very rare) and up into the house itself. Grandpa Davis gave us a bit of history and the low down on the house. I loved the history of that house. It is a beautiful white Cape-cod style house built during the days of the Civil War! Of course I can't forget the wonderful BIG dog, Lacy--the Davis' golden retriever/labroador that's actually black not yellow. She followed us around everywhere we went. While Adam was showing us around the house, his grandfather (whom was already there) was sitting out in the screened porch when his wife and daughter, aka Aunt Lori came back from the store. We sat with them and talked a while before heading back to the house to go swimming, tubing, and jet skiing for the rest of the afternoon.

Tubing is the craziest thing ever! You are flying on that thing and bouncing all over the place. Adam and I rode together and I was the "spotter" for Jacob and Marcus. After their turn, Marcus and I rode until we hit a huge wave and Marcus lost his grip and we both fell off. Haha. Then when we got back on Marcus fell off again because he couldn't hold on, his arms and hands were tired. So then Jacob and I went tubing together. All was fun and going great until we took a hard turn and hit a big wave at the same and went flying like three feet in the air! When we came back down my ankles hit and my chin hit the plastic thing in the middle of the float, so needless to say I have a battlewound bruise on my chin. We actually had to end tubing and jet skiing early because it started thundering. After tying everything down and/or bringing it in we came back in and read the newspapers until it started pouring. And boy did it pour! It was as if heaven unleashed all the rain it held in. It poured and the wind blew fiercely, hail the size of nickels fell and then boom the power went out. Ok so it didn't go boom, I added that for sound effect. ;-)

During the thunderstorm we read the paper, tinkered on the piano, and played the game Split Second. I am proud to say that under Adam's guidance I learned a new song, although I'm not really sure what it's called. After entertaining ourselves we ate dinner and then Mrs. Davis' parents came over and sat on the front porch chitchatting along with their itty bitty dog, Peaches. After talking Adam and I caught up with Luke and Jacob who were trying to fish so that we could hopefully catch some crabs (which unfortunately didn't happen, but was fun trying). After sitting out on the dock for a while and after the sun set we played frisbee out in the front yard. It was neat because the frisbee actually has two little lights on it so we could see the frisbee but not each other; this was really cool because the frisbee would go flying in the air and then stop because someone caught it. I played frisbee until my bladder couldn't take it anymore and I had to use the bathroom on Mrs. Davis' parents RV. Can I just say at this point I had no shame or embarrassment! Haha. After using the bathroom Marcus, Adam, and I went and sat out at the end of the dock with our feet dangling in the water as we looked/watched for moon jellies, shooting stars, and lighting off in the distance. This was my favorite thing by far :-D I can't even remember the last time I actually took time to look at the stars. But sitting there was so peaceful. I felt content and extremely blessed to be there with those two guys.

After sitting under the stars we went inside where the boys brought their matresses downstairs since it would be cooler to sleep down there than upstairs (due to power still being out). Finally, after getting everything downstairs the power came back on. We all decided that because we wanted to watch a movie that we would just stay up and stay down there. Before watching the movie we had an assembly line for washing dishes. Mrs. Davis washed the dishes, I dried them, and Adam put them away. Once that was done all of us (minus Mr. & Mrs. Davis) watched The Italian Job, but due to sleep deprivation earlier in the week none of us managed to stay awake and finsih it so that is now on my to do list.

The next morning was glorious! I woke up before all the boys did so I made my way outside and sat on the dock listening to some praise and worship music on my Zen and read my Bible. I read mostly from Psalms. It refreshed my soul to read God's word and sit outside with water and nature surrounding me. When I came back in I couldn't help but notice that Luke and Marcus were up so I sat with them and talked until one by one each of the boys woke up. When everyone was finally up and going we had breakfast, Mr. & Mrs. Davis left for church, Luke & Jacob left to get gas for the jet ski, and Adam & I played and sang "Come Thou Fount" on the piano, while Joel read, and Marcus showered. When Jacob & Luke got back we spent the rest of our time out on the water. Adam, Luke, and Jacob jet skiied and water skiied, Marcus and I were stranded out in the bay on the float (not a very fun experience), Joel kayaked, and Lacy swam around (even saving Adam at one point). Much to my disappointment we had to call it a day by eating lunch and then packing up our stuff and leaving.

The trip back to Bluefield took a little over 6 hours with a pit stop in Colonial Heights to visit Marcus parents and see the house he grew up in. All in all this trip was amazing and I'll be the first to say that I love that part of the state and I hope to be back there very soon!

YEC & Kings Dominion

Wow! What an incredible week and weekend! From July 30-August 1 I was asked to help at YEC (Youth EnCounter) for the college. The trip down flew by--I rode with Jacob and DT--we stopped and had lunch in Roanoke and then Jacob and I watched "Van Helsing" until my computer died. Once we got to Richmond we went straight to the RIR -- Richmond International Raceway where we helped set up the Bluefield College tent/exhibit. That night everyone helping with YEC had dinner at O'Charleys. It was no nice to be surrounded by people I hadn't seen that often or not at all.

By Thursday we helped out and ran the exhibit all day! It was so hot and muggy. I helped greet people as well as set up the pins for human bowling. Poor Luke & Jacob had to buckle and roll the people in the "bowling" ball--the sure did work hard but were wiped out by the end of the day! I was actually asked to speak and give a short message/testimony/encouragement during session 1. About an hour before I was really nervous, but once I was able to listen to Sonicflood and the comedian Thor Ramsey I felt more at ease and ready to go. My little message was short and to the point---about being "Driven" (which was this year's theme) and how I'm driven by serving. I don't think I did all that well, but it sufficed. After all, it was for the Lord and those youth, not me! That night we were asked to hold signs for those to follow duing the invitational and afterwards we were able to hear Grits and Sanctus Real perform. It was great! After a long day we were all wiped out. By the time we got back to the hotel we all crashed!

Friday was amazing! The last session was held that morning. It was also the morning we gave away scholarships and some cool prizes (Wii and Ipod Touch). After cleaning up our tent/exhibit and holding up the signs once more for another invitational we left and made our way to Kings Dominion. I must add here that we ate at Sheetz for lunch and much to my embarrassment I was in line waiting for my order and a man had come and set his really huge drinks behind me that I just happened to knock over and all over the place! I was mortified. Well not so much mortified as I was scared that the man would yell at me. But thank goodness he was nice and helpful! Ok so after Sheetz we went to Kings Dominion where we all nearly died of a heat stroke becuase it was so hot! We rode Shock Wave, Drop Tower/Zone, the Grizzly, Fear of Flight, Ricochet, Rebel Yell, the Volcanoe, the Crypt, and the Hurler, and of course we hit up the water park! It was so much fun! I hadn't been to an amusement park in a while so it was nice to feel like a kid again (what was even better is that the school paid our way in)! Not only was it "fun" but I was able to spend more time with great people: Luke, Sharde, Kris, Jacob, Brinton, Brittany, Sarah, Tori, and Mark. After our adventures were over and before we made our way back to the hotel for the last time we stopped and had some Italian ice cream at Gelatto's. All in all this was a great trip and I'd give it a rating of two thumbs up!