Home cooked meal in Georgia!

Both our first and second days of camp were fantastic!! We absolutely love our group of campers this week! They are so exuberant and full of energy and it just makes it so enjoyable for us! We had several parents tell us at family camp tonight that their kids talk about DI camp all night when they get home which is what we love to hear! At the end of family camp we had a couple families stay after and chat with us because they really want to get teams started!! YAY!!!!

After camp today we went off base to Walmart to get a few things and instead discovered that our stars and moons are a little mixed up today. When we went to pay, Ryan somehow spilled our entire bag of grapes all over the register. We obviously didn't want those ones anymore because they were covered in germs so while Ryan picked those up and handed them to the Walmart lady, I ran back to get another bag. Suddenly out of nowhere an old lady on a scooter ran me over! I'm totally serious, she put her scooter in reverse and took me out. After that mildly unpleasant experience, we hustled out to the parking lot where I tried to get into the wrong car. Clearly, we were not supposed to spend anymore time at Walmart!!

When we finally made it back to base safely, Ryan and I spent our afternoon before family camp going for a walk to Duck Lake which is a cute little lake not far from our lodging. We of course took along our cameras and my tripod so we could actually get a couple pictures of both of us!

Naturally on the way there Ryan belted out songs about anything and everything!

I just smiled and nodded and said, "yeah... sing it!!"

We found a cute little gazebo by the water and decided it was an appropriate place for a photo shoot!

We smiled...

... and hugged...

... and I cried while Ryan tried to jump over the edge...

... then we smiled more...

... then Ryan tried to push me...

... so I made faces at him...

... I thought we were supposed to rock out here but according to Ryan's face, I was extremely incorrect...

... then we realized we were surrounded by hornet nests and quickly exited the gazebo!!

After family camp we decided to use the fire pit outside our rooms and make dinner! It was an adventure but it turned out to be the best dinner we've had the whole summer so far!

I was just so excited that he actually got a fire started since we failed miserably last night.

Ryan cooking the chicken! He only ended up with a few minor burns...

Here is my contribution, I cooked the veggies!

... and here's the final product! Our very own home cooked meal in Georgia!!

The plan was to have s'mores for dessert but when an announcement came on over the loud speakers and said, "WARNING ROBIN'S AIR FORCE BASE, THERE IS LIGHTNING WITHIN FIVE MILES!!" we promptly picked up our stuff and ran inside.

I may have mentioned once or twice that I tend to be unlucky and attract things such as bugs, alligators and sharks. Well lightning falls into that group too!

So we went inside and Ryan improvised an indoor s'mores dessert that we ate while we listened to the thunder and rain rattle the windows!

Very solid day!!

Oh and just a side note- My computer randomly decided it wanted to underline everything part way through and I couldn't figure out how to make it stop.

Exploring Georgia!

We had a fantastic day today! We started off by visiting beautiful Macon, GA where the word "TOURIST" radiated off of us everywhere we went. We were clearly not from there because we were walking around taking pictures when the whole town was closed for church. We enjoyed looking at all the old buildings and churches and brick roads though!

This is just one of the beautiful churches!

We decided to switch gears and become locals in the evening though and attended a concert in the park where we went and watched the band The Grape Vines play. We fit right in here!

The Grape Vines

Ryan enjoying the music!

Watching from the top of the hill.

We haven't quite mastered the whole hold the camera out and take a picture of ourselves thing yet... but we got pretty close!

Overall today was a very solid day! Until we got back to our rooms...

It seems as though somebody killed Charlotte! I feel like a bad foster spider mom! Sorry Charlotte... :(

"Georrrrgggiiaaaaa, sweeeet Georrrrrggggiiaaaa..."

This morning at 6:00 am we waved goodbye to Tyndall AFB and headed on our way to Georgia. We didn't think anyplace could top our beautiful week in Florida.

Bye bye Tyndall

But we were wrong! Robins AFB in Georgia is a dream!

We won't ruin the dream by talking about the 8 hours it took to get there instead of 5 and the 2 hour detour we took in the morning which included us being lost for an hour on our way to the Panama City airport and trying to get our new rental car for the other hour... no we'll skip that part! :)

We made is safely and we love it!!! I would like to say, thank you dad for google mapping our directions all the way from Washington. We really did enjoy all the back roads and country side! It may not have been the quickest route but oh man was it beautiful! :)

When we got to our Georgia base we met up with our POC Marvin aka "Hawk" who is AWESOME!! He's really gone above and beyond for us already!!

More about Georgia though...

Does anyone know the name of the penny-sized flying dive-bombing red Georgia bugs? Yea, one of those went for Ryan big time, but when he screamed and pulled out a serious bend-backwards-and-wave-your-arms Matrix move, it shot straight into my ear! Hope they aren't some kind of crazy parasite or something...

Oh but guess what?? I have my very own foster spider. I named her Charlotte. She lives between the glass and the screen of my window. I'm really getting used to all of these Jurassic bugs I'm meeting. Here is a picture of her. Hey, is that a word she's spinning into her web??

Feeling the love in Florida on our last day...

Our last day of camp at Tyndall was amazing! It was hard to say goodbye to all of our fantastic campers and youth staff from the week. They even gave Ryan and I each a Starbucks card. So sweet! As I sit here typing, I still find myself laughing at some of the things the kids came up with today.

For one of the challenges they had to create a list of 5 people, places, and time periods. Next they rolled a dice to randomly select one from each category. The ones they rolled were what they used to make a skit. So...

First group- Here we have Elvis on the right skipping with his new friend George in Singapore at Dusk. Little did Elvis know, his new friend was a vampire. As we all know from reading Twilight, Dusk is a very dangerous time to become friends with a Vampire. Unfortunately things didn't work out so well for poor Elvis...

Second group- Their person was Miss Rachael, their place was a crab cage, and the time period was 3000 BC. Sitting on the floor is me, (Miss Rachael) and I'm trapped in a crab cage because Mr. Ryan pushed me in there. On the far right we have Mr. Ryan who is about to push the poor caveman who's trying to save me into the crab cage as well. Things got pretty intense there for a while but don't worry, the other people came to the rescue and threw a rock at Mr. Ryan's head which knocked him unconscious long enough for them to save me and my new friend Mr. Caveman. We all lived happily ever after... except Mr. Ryan... he had a bit of a headache!

At the end of camp we held a mini graduation where we called each camper down and presented them with a certificate and a DI backpack full of neat DI goodies. As they came down they shook our hands... most of them...

This is Dustin. When I called his name he literally jumped off the bleachers and ran full speed down to the front at which time he flung himself right into my arms for a huge bear/cling on hug.

You might be able to tell by my face that I wasn't expecting this but I was extremely touched. This is exactly why I'm doing this job. We made a difference in Dustin's life and that made the whole week in Florida worthwhile!

After we got everything all packed up, we decided to take a small road trip to Panama City Beach where we went to Pier Park.

Naturally, we posed for pictures before heading down to the water :)

NO RYAN!! Get out of the water! You're going to get eaten by a shark!!!

This is what I was saying as I danced nervously in the sand while Ryan risked his life to take a picture.

This is me demonstrating that you can take a pretty picture while standing safely in the sand.

I did however do some serious edge work and risk taking tonight as well. I actually took a few steps onto the wet sand... yep, sorry mom... I was watching for sharks the whole time! I promise :)

Well stay tuned because tomorrow we are driving 5 hours to Robins AFB in Georgia... this could be interesting... :)

Loving camps in Florida!!!

Well we'll start with yesterday...

It was another fantastic day with the campers. It's a good sign when one of the kids comes up to you and says, "Miss Rachael? Why can't camp be longer?" Absolutely precious!

Last night we had our base training and we had 13 of the youth staff members come. They were all very receptive and we loved working with them. We had them end on a performance challenge and as an audience member, I was howling with laughter. The things they came up with were hilarious.

The challenge was to create a performance in which 3 animals were campaigning to be president of the zoo. This group did a rap!

This group had each of their 3 animals be Sarah Palin, John Mccain, and President Obama. Their names for the 3 were much funnier though :)

As for today... it was brilliant! We just have so many great thinkers! It's a blast for Ryan and I to work with them!!

They had a challenge where they created a presentation that included 3 celebrities who's luggage got mixed up at the airport and airport security had to help sort it out. At the end, the audience guessed who the celebrities were.

Here we have Selena Gomez, Hannah Montana and... wait for it... Thomas Jefferson!!! Can you guess who's who?

After camp today Ryan and I decided to go for a stroll on a path around base and take some pictures because it is beautiful. At one point I had to run back to my room at which time Ryan decided it would be lovely to go exploring off the path and look for an alligator. When I arrived back at our meeting spot, Ryan was nowhere to be found. So naturally, I panicked and went on a mad search for him. Needless to say, I nearly had a heart attack while Ryan chilled under the watch tower. No worries though, he wasn't eaten and we had a little chat about a thing called the buddy system :)

Here are some pictures of the base outside my room.

Tonight we had family camp and we still can't stop talking about it. Couldn't have had a better turn out of families. Just like their kids, the parents are also great thinkers! :)

So you think the spiders in Texas are big?? You should see the cockroaches in Florida...

So let me start with what I had planned to write before the attack of the cockroach...

Up until about 30 minutes ago I had nothing but good news to report. The first bit of good news is that we have NOT been eaten by any alligators yet. They seem to really like their pit and Ryan and I are committed to following the rules that are posted outside our rooms. The second bit of good news is that our first day of camp was FANTASTIC!! We have a great group of campers this week and our POC and camp helper are both amazing!

Here is one of the groups of kids. For one of their performances they created a commercial about a super hero named "Captain Green Planet." Here is the back of his costume.

As you can see, Captain Green Planet has help from the "Paper Man" and the "Cans and Plastics Ladies." In the middle, we have the narrator. Can you say precious??

After camp we went exploring down highway 98 where we found a beautiful area next to a community college. We walked around for a while and took some pictures.

Look at all the hermit crabs!

After a great afternoon we went back to base and went for a run. Don't worry we kept our eyes wide open for alligators and the bear! Oh did I mention there is a bear lose on base?? Yep there is. There was a warning sent out about it...

Ryan made a healthy dinner for us tonight. We realized we didn't have any silverware so we had to eat caveman style with our hands. This was extremely difficult for poor Ryan but he was a champ. I think he only washed his hands about 800 times :)

Okay this is where it gets a little scary... and dangerous...

So there we were minding our own business watching possibly the worst movie ever (FYI- Remember Me = absolutely terrible) when Ryan yelled, "THERE'S SOMETHING CRAWLING OVER ON THE FLOOR BY THE DOOR!" Here's what happened next...

Rachael: "TURN ON THE LIGHT!!"

Ryan: " Ummmm OKAY!"

(Ryan and Rachael both scream and cling together)

We spotted it instantly! I have never seen anything move so fast. That awful, ugly, cockroach charged at us and was across the room in approximately .02 seconds. Somehow I mustered up the courage to trap it under the ice bucket.

We debated for a solid 10 minutes what to do next. We finally decided we needed to get it outside. So Ryan lifted the bucket and slid a yellow plate underneath. Unfortunately, that darn cockroach was too fast and tried to escape right when Ryan slammed the bucket back down.

Needless to say, the cockroach didn't make it...

We put it outside and then took a few moments to process and talk about how we really did try to spare the lives of both the Texan spider and the Florida cockroach. We concluded that our intentions were good and our actions were brave and noble.

Both still terrified, we finished watching the worst movie ever.

WOW! What a day!

Welcome to Florida... sort of!

After a wonderful week at home I hopped on a plane.. or two... or three yesterday and headed to Florida for more camps!! :)

I'm not gonna lie, the day started off pretty solid! It only took security at the Pasco airport 19 minutes to search me and all my bags which is a new record. On top of that, they didn't even shut down security this time because they recognized me as "the girl with all the liquid meds." So needless to say I was feeling pretty good when I got on my first flight! Unfortunately my second flight out of Salt Lake City was delayed which caused me to miss my flight in Vegas which naturally also messed up my flight in Atlanta. So... I picked up the phone labeled "HELP" and talked to a lovely Delta representative who booked me on a new flight. So Saturday night I flew into Panama City and went straight to the baggage claim where I waited... and waited... and waited...

Yep! You guessed it, my luggage took a little detour on some different flights. No worries though! The 5 lovely men at the Delta "Delayed luggage" counter helped me sort all that out and my bags arrived at 10:00am this morning. After sorting out the luggage, I proceeded onto the rental car counter where I nervously rented a car that I had to drive 40 miles to Tyndal AFB by myself!!!! AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Scary right??? YES!! Have no fear though! Remember the 5 lovely men at the luggage counter?? They seemed a little concerned that I was driving to the base all by myself so they wrote out step by step directions for me as well as the direct phone number to their luggage counter so I could phone them if I got lost. So listen up folks! Lesson learned is... when in doubt, go ask the 5 lovely men at the Delta "Delayed luggage" counter! :)

After arriving on base, I met up with Ryan at the base lodging where he quickly introduced me to the alligator pit right outside our rooms. Here are the rules for the gator pit. I kinda wish my room wasn't on the first floor...

Today we had a lovely 4th of July! We drove to Mexico Beach and soaked up some sun!

Ryan had fun in the water with his skim board thing. (I think that's what it's called)

As for me? Well I played in the sand! Seeing how I attract mosquitos, I decided not to take my chances with sharks :)

For dinner we went to a lovely little place by the beach where Ryan did some serious edge work and ate fries with his hands rather than a fork and knife. Don't worry, he washed them extensively before touching the food :)

I cheered him on!

After dinner we watched some awesome fireworks. We stayed up close to the car though because Ryan was concerned we would be blown up if we actually went down to the beach to watch. :)