Just When We Thought Things Couldn't Get Any More Exciting . . .

On Thursday last, we loaded up and headed out from the church parking lot for our odyssey at Six Flags Over Texas. Our mini caravan of three vehicles contained 19 souls bent on squeezing every last ounce of fun out of each and every moment afforded us. Kregg and I were the only ones over the age of 23. You may proceed to question our sanity. 


It's okay. We do, too.

Our accommodations were graciously provided to us by a local church, thus keeping the cost down for all participants. We had an entire gymnasium at our disposal and an adjoining classroom with a retractable divider as the bedrooms. After the teenagers exploded into the room, there was barely space left to tip toe to your bags. Thankfully, my wonderful, thoughtful, caring husband brought air mattresses, so his dainty daughters and adoring wife could sleep on a cushion of air instead of the hard floor. (As I have aged, the floors have become proportionately harder, so the air mattress was much appreciated, even when having to share it with our squirmy, floppy youngest.)

Cowboy's Stadium

As we attempted to make our way to a pizza place for dinner that night, we started seeing lots and lots of Dallas Cowboy apparel. Little did we know, we were sharing the same 2 square miles with however many football fans it takes to fill up "Jerry World." 

So our dinner destination changed. It changed to one far, far away from football.


After a Walmart run, ice cream and a game of Wink-Em in the gym, we all piled onto our pallets to sleep. We could hear the boys through the partition, but at least their cooties couldn't get on us.

Friday morning, our youth minister cooked pancakes for the entire crew on a little tiny griddle plugged in on a counter top at the edge of the gym. Definitely think that qualifies as "above and beyond the call of duty."


And then it was off to the main event! I cannot find words that would accurately express the scope of my anticipation as we headed out. You will just have to imagine it for yourself. And then multiply that by an exponent of about 47. 


The park opened at 10:30 that morning and the temperature was already in the upper 90's. We divided into groups: "Thrill-seekers," and "Those-Who-Believe- Life-Is-Thrilling-Enough-Without-80'-Plunges-That-Pull-3G's". Normally, I would be in the former group, but because we were sponsors, I escorted the latter group around the park. You would think that we would, therefore, have had very little risk of injury. 

But even on this seemingly innocuous ride, an element of risk can always be introduced by kids.

Ben has his back to us and is grabbing his head.

He and Margaret, our youth intern for the summer, knocked their heads together. Ben was fine of course, his head being his least vulnerable spot, but poor Margaret got this lovely goose egg on her lovely forehead. She spent the next hour or so like this:

That was our very first ride of the day! She was such a good sport. 

After several other rides, we met the rest of the crew for lunch. Then went our separate ways with plans to meet back at the front gate at 5 p.m.

Silly, silly children! :)

We had a great time, even though we constantly looked like we had just gotten off the Roaring Rapids. (translation: we were drenched in sweat all day!) When we met up at 5, the kids all decided they'd had enough. I cannot tell you how very happy it made me! They chose, of their own accord, to return to our air-conditioned vehicles and drive back to the air-conditioned church building, and take lovely cold showers so we could go eat dinner in an air-conditioned restaurant! WooHoo!!!

Of course, there was a bit of cooling down that had to happen first.



But then we went HERE:

And had THIS!!! Oh my!


It was so nice to be able to take all these kids to a nice restaurant and receive compliments on their behavior from the waitstaff. :)


The next morning, we simply got up, packed up, loaded up and headed out. Halfway home, we stopped in Abilene for lunch and Kregg's parents came to meet us. 

This looks like a group hug, but all the little children were actually sleeping and Caleb was holding them up after lunch. The last leg of our journey went off without a hitch and everyone returned safely. What a huge blessing! 


You would think the kids would have had "enough" of each other, but you would be wrong. I'm not exactly sure exactly how many of the young men ended up spending the night at my house, but there were bodies scattered throughout several rooms. Before their arrival, I made a mad dash to the store to restock the larder. 


And now for the "not-funny-part."


Upon my arrival at the house with the groceries, Elizabeth was in the middle of a serious asthma attack! She had taken her breathing treatment, but it hadn't helped. That had never happened before. And then she got scared. And then Kregg and I got really scared! When her limbs started getting cold and turning purple, Caleb scooped her up and carried her to the truck. Kregg and I drove to the ER with the flashers going and the pedal to the metal. The nurse got us right in and hooked her up to a pulse ox meter, that's when I started breathing again. Her oxygen level was okay!! They kept us and monitored her for a little while and when her pulse finally dropped back to a normal range (it had been over 130) they let us go home. 


Thankfully, Caleb took care of everyone else so I could just take care of Elizabeth. She is much better now and we are very thankful for His Hand of Protection over three very busy days.