Hello and Happy Friday!
In case you’ve been out of the loop and wondering why guest posts have been taking over the blog the past four days, Scott and I spent the last the last six days helping out with a youth summer camp put on by our home church in Orlando.
The first couple of days were a blast, and since I didn’t get a chance to follow up with another recap, I figured you all wouldn’t mind me dedicating a Friday Favorites post to it. Hopefully I’m not wrong about this one… 😉
Each bullet point is something I’ve been loving this week after all. As always, I invite you to share something or even an entire post of things that have made you smile this week below!
Friday Favorites #43: Camp Orlando Highlights
• Scott’s shenanigans on stage
If you read my first post about the camp, then you already have an idea of what Scott’s been up to. He was brought on to be the camp emcee and his number one job was to provide entertainment.
(Blindfolds, obviously.)
(Dance lessons, or spelling your name in cursive with your hips.)
From jokes and bits to skits and challenges, he had the campers laughing and standing up in their seats every morning. My favorite part of the Morning Show (besides the games I got to help with) were social media shares.
Throughout the week, Scott asked everyone to use #CampOrlando2014 and share funny things and photos that happen around campus. What resulted was pages of jokes and a lot of embarrassment of willing participants and tweeters.
This one, in particular, was a favorite. Check out that epic tan line!
I guess you could say there was also a lot of shenanigans going on off the stage as well. Crazy clowns.
I still can’t figure out how this happened without anyone getting hurt!
• Rec
Every afternoon, the campers split up into teams and participated in a variety of games outside on the recreation fields. Before they set out, each team gets a chance to create group chants and engage in challenges on stage for extra spirit points.
The team bit out of the week for me has to go to the Teal Team.
You can’t really see it in this picture (boo!) but the leader is totally wearing a Nacho Libre wrestling mask.
Every day meant different games, and all that they played was unique by including twists to the originals.
For a good part of my time here, I wanted to forget my role as an adult and join in on the fun on the fields!
• trivia and challenges
During rec time, Scott was on the microphone and became in charge of offering every team a chance to earn extra bonus points.
I racked my brain and searched the internet high and low for useless trivia questions and while I was going from question to question, Scott encouraged teams to win extra spirit points by participating in challenges and getting creative.
From human pyramids to wheel barrow races, we were pleasantly surprised at how willing these campers were to latch onto what we were asking of them.
It was all so fun to watch and take part in!
• KB concert
Something pretty special took place the last night of high school camp and first night of middle school camp. KB came to perform in concert!
Kevin Burgess is a Christian hip hop artist that goes by the stage name KB. He put on a fun and powerful concert both nights with catchy music and incredibly inspirational words.
Scott and I had the pleasure of hanging with him after his shows and became big fans relatively quickly. What a talent!
• catching up with family
Scott and I got on board with working this summer camp several months ago. This was before we found out that his sister and her family would also be joining us all the way from Dubai! The world is so, so small!
Having Scott’s sister, brother-in-law and nieces there was just an added bonus… not including the extra treat of seeing his brother-in-law preach to the middle school group.
Since they live across international waters, we usually only get to spend time with them once a year. Seeing them every day this week has been so wonderful!
• worship by students, with students
The band in charge of worship on stage for both age groups was student led band from The First Academy, a Christian preparatory school located right on our church’s property.
There was a music leader on staff to help guide them, but for the most part these guys were pretty much on their own to put together and deliver music to impact students and get people into the service.
Not only were they talented, but all were very welcoming and hilarious.
The last night of camp, Scott and I ended up hanging back and sharing stories about performing in the NBA. We stayed for hours laughing and having a great time.
I sure am going to miss this bunch!
• talent show + the return of Waco
When two of the girls in the band mentioned that they wanted to perform a dance in the talent show, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to channel my inner middle school self and help put together a routine.
Anyone else out there know Hannah Montana’s Hoedown Throwdown? Apparently it’s a classic country routine everyone seems to know of and more than likely has attempted to learn for themselves.
Miley even put together a dance break down video that helps teach the exact steps performed in her movie! That’s where we got the moves from.
There was just under ten of us who decided to give it a go the day of the talent show. Literally, in one day using all of our free time, we went over the routine count by count, practiced, auditioned, and performed the Hoedown Throwdown as the opening act in the camp talent show.
Everything went well… until we had a little surprise visitor show up.
We totally got Waco-d!
It was awesome and terrifying all at the same time. No matter how much I think I prepare myself for it, there’s always going to be something scary about him and those eyes staring at you!
You can watch the entire video, if you’re interested. Ha!
That gorilla sure is a sneaky one!
• Disney
Camp wrapped up with a great service followed by more nonsense from Mr. Hesington.
Since we planned on riding back to Orlando with Scott’s family, we decided to make a day of it and spent the rest of our Thursday at Disney World with them!
I can’t even tell you the last time I walked that park. It felt so great to be back and reminisce with my favorite Disney Princess childhood memories.
Scott actually used to work at Disney, and has a lot of insight on the inside scoop. As we made our way around the property, he entertained us with stories and history behind tons of sets and shows.
I’ll have to share some of them with you in an upcoming post!
Coming straight from camp, we were only able to get there right before 4 p.m. and spent the rest of our night checking out as much as we could.
We all had fun together, but it was a bummer that a lot of the big rides were closed due to unsafe weather conditions.
No Thunder or Slash Mountain for us. Space Mountain was even temporarily down for repairs. What are the odds?
We did, however, get to ride a brand new one called Seven Dwarfs. We weren’t sure what to expect of the ride with 70-minute wait time, but time seemed to go by fast with activities along the way and it turned out to be one of my favorite rides to date!
Some of you may already know that I am a complete baby when it comes to roller coasters. I’ll ride them, but can only take so much twisting and turning before I get nauseous and sick. Because of this, I don’t exactly enjoy all roller coasters, and prefer the tame ones that still produce a scary height and drop without all of the upside down loops.
This one was the perfect combination of all of that and proved to be well worth the wait!
• giveaway reminder
If you haven’t already done so, check out the iced tea summer drink I’ve been drooling over and take a minute to enter in to win a Pure Via Summer Fit Kit package!
The giveaway will close at Midnight Sunday, June 29th!
And now, I’d love to hear from you…
Your Turn
Have a great weekend!
![[in our elementary school era] 🚌😭
Skyler did great walking into KINDERGARTEN with a big smile on his face this morning. I, however, was a bit of a mess on our walk home. 🥹
It’s wild how fast these 5 years with him have gone … 7 since we moved to NYC and into our apartment, dreaming of the day our kids would someday go to the *awesome* school right down our block. 🏫
That day is today, and I still don’t believe it — feeling allll of the emotions and thanking God for placing us here and for being able to trust His timing through the journey. 🫶🏼 #hbshinnyc
SO proud of you, SK - you are going to rock your first year at your “big boy school” - WE LOVE YOU !! 🩵👑](https://lifeinleggings.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
Do you ever feel like attempting (or not) to corral Scott is like an extension of your job as Hooper’s assistant? lol No wonder you are so well prepared for both!
SOmethign making me very happy is the fact that my little and Maid of Honor will be coming up to Chicago for the next 3 nights. What makes me not so happy is the fact that, for the past week and supposedly for the weekend, Chicago is going to be engulfed in fog and rain.
The weather up here, is no so good! Have a great weekend!
Ha, yes… it does feel very similar at times. I just let them both do their own thing. Much easier that way! 😉 Have fun with your friend in CHI!
I would loooveee to go back to camp! So much fun. Also I have been dying to visit Disney and check out the new stuff. It’s been years since I’ve been but Disney will always be one of my favorite places.
I really wish we had more time there. I still fee like we didn’t get to do everything!
I know your post has me craving a Disney trip and a visit to camp! So much fun!
I would love it if you did a Disney post and shared stories about his time working there!!! I want to work at Disney in the future so I love hearing any and all stories about the happiest place on earth 🙂
Awesome, I’ll work on it next week!
This makes me miss camp so much! I attended as a kid and then worked as a counselor a couple years. All the shenanigans, especially, make it so memorable! I’m glad you enjoyed your time!
So much fun 🙂
Man this makes me miss working with my youth group back home!! It looks like such a blast 🙂 And YAY for Disney!
I know, it makes me want to get more involved in working with students in MI! 🙂
I’m so so glad you guys had an awesome time!! Love all the pictures:) Camp looks like it was a blast! How amazing you’ve been able to spend time with Scott’s family!
That is was! It was bittersweet leaving yesterday. And yes, spending time with them was just the icing on the cake!
Yay! Disney is the best!!!
I hadn’t been since my childhood! Wish we had more time there before the rain. Maybe one day again soon!
I loved summer camp as a kid. So many fun memories. It looks like you guys helped the kids have such a blast!! I would totally want to play all of the games too. 🙂
It took all of my will power not to just jump in there. 😉
You guys are awesome. I think it’s so great that you were willing to spend your week serving at this camp! It sounds like you were both made for it! Your posts re: the camp totally take me back to church camp days. 🙂 So fun!
It was so much fun! We’re hoping to go again next year. I wouldn’t ever mind doing more of them 🙂
It looks like camp was a lot of fun! What a cool thing to do with your hubby! And his family!