Weekend in Columbus

I really enjoy going to new places, seeing new things, and eating at new restaurants - and that's exactly what we did this weekend with Mark and Kristin. We decided to head to Columbus, OH and had a great time. We laughed way too much and ate way too much, but the memories we made were worth it!

ONLY because we had gift cards (thank you National City rewards points), we ate here...

And yes, I definitely agree with Sean Hannity. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse does have the absolute best tasting steak in the world! I'm sure it can't get any better than this.

And the dessert was to die for! Both of these items were some kind of chocolate concoction - the kind where the description of the dessert is quite a long paragraph.

And thanks to Mark's priceline.com efforts - we got a steal on a hotel room. We stayed at the Hyatt Place for only $35 per room - whoo hoo! And the rooms were super nice!! Plus, it was right across the street from Ruth's Chris!

On Saturday we went to COSI. I've heard a lot about this place and always thought it would be a neat place to visit. I was not disappointed. They have so many amazing things to do and see. We were there until they closed and still didn't see everything.

We took part in a "real" crime scene investigation geared like CSI. We were crime scene #3 and had to gather clues and investigate this desert crime.

Aaron was studying hard to determine what type of seeds were near the bones.

Kristin was comparing pollen types.

Mark and Kristin were determining which dog the hair belonged to that was found on the button of the jacket remains near the skeleton. We also researched the caliber of the bullet, looked at dental records, and X-rays. After we gathered all our clues, we discovered that it was indeed a murder and the suspect we named was the correct one! It was a lot of fun! :-)

This was a cool computer station - well, kind of. It took your picture and then "aged" you - and showed you what you would look like when you were really old. It was kind of scary actually.

This was really strange and I can't believe I actually watched this, but I did. It was Rat Basketball. They had trained rats to actually make baskets with these little balls. It was fascinating and gross at the same time. (I think the long tail is what gets me - shiver.)

Mark rode this unicycle on the tight rope. It was so funny to watch him.

Especially when the guy running the station would holler things out like, "no hands". . .

. . . and "can you do YMCA" - we were laughing so hard!

Then we went Under the Sea to visit the really cool "Ocean" exhibit.



This ledge was much skinner than it looked and I was having trouble staying on it!

The Little Mermaid (aka Kristin). :-)

All kinds of pipes to build with!



We all had to try something.

This was really neat too - if you balanced the ball on top of the water just right . . .

. . . you got this.

They even had outdoor exhibits. The giant lever that Aaron . . .

. . . and Mark were pulling down . . .

. . . was lifting this car.

So, if you haven't been to COSI - you should go. We loved it!

Amy - class of '09

Last week I took Amy Loper's senior pictures. We had a lot of fun traipsing through the park (and around ducks) to get some cool outdoor shots before we headed indoors. I couldn't have asked for a better subject - she was great! And the weather was absolutely perfect.

Campus Cookout!

We had a great time last night at the GBS campus cookout! Mark/Kristin, Andy/Dixie, and Aaron and I decided to host one last summer bash before school starts. Everyone always seems so busy around here, so we didn't know what kind of response we would get. Even if it was just the 6 of us we would have been happy. However. . . we had 42 people!! We were thrilled that so many came and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

Yep - we had plenty of food and it was all so good!

And a cookout isn't complete without corn hole, right?

Carson managed to entertain us on several occasions. He fell off his picnic table onto his head 3 different times, he grabbed a cup off a table that was higher than him and spilled the liquid right in his face, and here he had just tipped over another drink. What a funny guy (and what am I in store for?)! :-)

VBS!

Whew! What a busy week! We were in VBS this week at our church, Kenwood Bible Methodist. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work.

We started out each evening in the sanctuary to sing songs . . .

. . . and watch a mini-drama that told the bible lesson.

Then everyone went outside for "tribe time" with their group and tribe leaders.

Each team sent one person to the marketplace each night to bake bread.

They visited the synagogue as a team to hear a lesson from Rabbi John.

One of the favorite nights in the synagogue was the leprosy object lesson. This was demonstrated with John putting his hand in soaking wet potting soil and then he shook hands with the kids. After he explained what leprosy was, he told how Jesus healed the leapers. He dipped his hand in a bucket of clean water and of course his hand came out completely clean (healed). The kids (and me too) thought this was pretty cool.

The different craft stations were a really big hit. Here they made sandals. This is Caleb hammering away.

The stone (soap) carving was also fun. They carved their Hebrew tribe symbols into the soap. Or in the case of my tribe, who were all around age 2, they kind of just scratched around on it. But, no one really knew anyway - after all - who can ready Hebrew??

Trisha and David did a great job with the fisherman's net shop. There were different crafts here each night.

Door hangers or bookmarks with lots and lots of cool things to glue on them - oh, the many options!

And we had some "not so young" kids painting at the toy shop. (Check out that concentration!) I think Beulah Haggard enjoyed VBS as much as the kids did! :-)

The games were also a big hit. This was one a lot harder than it looked. The kids had to move the lifesaver down the line by only using the straw in their mouth while racing against the other team.

After snack time, we all went back to our blankets for more tribe time where we finished up the lesson and learned the memory verse.

Then back inside to close with a powerpoint of the pictures from the evening and more singing.

Jenn and I surviving the heat and the VBS action - we're only 8 weeks apart.

On the last night, we had a very special guest, Jesus, (aka Bro. Durr) come visit and talk to the children. The kids thought that was pretty cool too. He took off his beard at the end to pray for them and one little boy right outloud said, "That's not Jesus!" It was funny!