Monday

Rise and shine at 7:00am! Breakfast upstairs.

Another great breakfast by Chef Priest.

Our first stop of the morning, only an hour away, was to the Virginia Drive Thru Safari. Being so close to nature and the beautiful, wild animals that God created was just awe inspiring. We had the joy of taking a wagon ride through the safari then exploring the rest of the zoo. Here are some snapshots.

                                                      Petting zoo area

                                                   Not all wild animals were in cages. hehe

                                                 Armed with bowls of food, we are off

                                                   llama llama

                                                    The elks were beautiful

                                                    Tracy has her new friend eating our of her hand

                                                   Sam wasn't too sure about petting the snake

                                                    Landon didn't mind TOO much

                                                   This is how you pet a snake without getting too close

                                                   Jensen needed encouragement.....4 times! :-)

                                                    The aviary was really cool too

                                                   The birds loved Hannah

                                                     Jenny found new friends too

                                                   Yes, Sam put her feeding sticks on her head

                                                  While Tracy refused to pet the snake, the birds flocked to her

After this fun filled morning, we headed to Westminster Canterbury Retirement facility. This place is BEYOND amazing! After a dinner of pizza, we entertained almost a room full of lovely residents. These places always touch the children's hearts. I wish you could see how comfortable they are mingling and talking with these older people. A few years ago, most of them were scared to even approach residents. Now, they are laughing and joking and learning with these amazing people. I had the joy of playing a Steinway that had been donated by a resident that used to teach piano. She just recently had to move to the assisted living portion of the facility and could not take the piano with her. She is now 104 years old. The residents praised how there are still youth that are not only Christians but are willing to travel and share God's message. We are truly blessed to have the youth that we do in our church and families. 

Back to the dorms for Bible Study, God moment sharing, Tribal Council voting and the nightly challenge. Tonight, the kids were BEANBOOZLED! For those of you that may not know what bean boozled is, it's a collection of jelly beans that have flavors such as lime or grass clippings, coconut or spoiled milk, and other delicious flavors. The goal was to find the one that could outlast the others in eating the jelly beans. Ethan, Mason and Jenny did not give up. Lindsey didn't quite make it.