ASC 2008

So every 4 years Young Life has an All Staff Conference-which means that all the staff from around the world get together for a week of fun. There are only 3 places in the US that have hotels big enough for us and lucky for me one of them is in Orlando Florida! So right after my family vacation to Florida they dropped me off at the Marriott World Center in Orlando where I spent the next week hearing amazing YL stories, catching up with friends, relaxing by the pool, and just having an incredible time. YL is awesome for putting this on- we are given the 1st class treatment!

The first 3 days were just International Staff. My favorite part was hearing the stories from around the world. There is so much happening and it's hard not to get caught up in your own little "bubble" and not look outside of it. At the end of those three days we had and afternoon and evening off to do whatever. Since we had some days left on our disney pass Jessica and I decided to go and see how the Magic Kingdom and MGM were doing without us. Here are pictures of us on the the Rock 'n Rollercoaster and in front of Cinderella's castle.



Then all the staff from around the US joined us in Orlando-there were over 3900 of us there-pretty crazy! There were awesome speakers and classes we went to and they brought in lots of fun surprises for us. One of the surprises was a Jars of Clay concert. Here are Jessica, Tiffany and I jammin' at the concert.

Nicole C Mullen was another suprise- she was amazing- nothing like hearing "my reedemer lives" sung live! The last night Jack Hanna was there and brought some craqzy animals out for us-including a python which led to some crazy laughs- wish I could have gotten it on video cuz you can't script what the animals will do!

The last night they also had a really nice dinner for us and we got all decked out. At first I was quite annoyed that we had to get dressed up- it is not my favorite thing. But it ended up being a lot of fun. The African contingent taught us a new song and got us all up and dancing and waving our napkins!

It really was an awesome week- I have not laughed so hard in a long time and it was so much fun to share the whole exprience with all those people.

Disney 07-08

So for those of you that know or don't- my whole family went to disney just after Christmas. We spent 7 days in the parks- and yes we went all 7! I mean who can get enough of disney?:) The trip started with a 12-which turned into 15-hour drive to Altanta. We spent 2 nights at my friend Dawn's house-she wasn't there which stunk for me but she is the best and let my whole fam crash there anyway- thanks a bunch McDowell's! Then on Saturday the 29th we drove the last 7 hours to florida.
We figured we would start out with the Magic Kingdom- since that is what most people think of when they think of Disney. Here we are on the first morning in front of Cinderella's castle. This picture has the whole family except mike in it- you gotta love having professional photographers in the family:)

We LOVE rides and the kids were at teh perfect age to enjoy them! here we are on a roller coaster in animal kingdom(if you get a closer look at Alexis' face it is hysterical!) and then coming off of Space Mountain-a classic!

Another great thing about disney is getting to meet the characters. Here are Trish and I with Goofy and trish, me, cinderella, wanda and mom- yes we ate with the princesses- it was so fun to see Alexis and Kari's faces when they came over and talked to them.

Now if you have ever been to disney you know there is a lot of time spent waiting in line or wating for parades. Here is the fam waiting for the parade in Animal Kingdom. The picture on the right is what we did to kill time while waiting for the safari-it was a 90 minute wait so we started being outback people looking for the rarest creatures of all(martindell and landis kids) It was hysterical- we are going to watch the video next year!:)

So it was New years while we were there. It rained on and off most of the evening but after much coaxing a few of us made it through and rang in 2008 at the Magic Kingdom! They handed out hats and noise makers and had tons of fireworks behind the castle and all around us-it was a long day but well worth it!

And one final pic of me and tigger-it had been a few years since we saw each other but when we did it was just like old times:)

It was a crazy and fun trip- as it always is when my family gets together. The kids were great and it was fun to experience it through their eyes- they didn't remember when they were there 9 years ago. SO thanks mom and dad for antoher trip of a lifetime! Next Christmas it will have to be Belgium!!!!