It was a real treat to get to spend this Thanksgiving in Williamsburg, VA. I know that was last week – but after posting about leaving, arriving, meeting up with friends, and more friends, and about an awesome kids pastor, matching sweaters, and even trash cans I took a break from my computer from Wednesday through Sunday and it was wonderful to be off line for several days in a row. Now that I am caught up on the hundreds of e-mails I got behind on… I thought I’d finally post about Thanksgiving.
It was like traveling back in time! Except for all the people wearing weird clothes… referring to myself and the other tourists. I actually thought it would be an interesting idea to have an area where you had to be in period costume to get in, that would be fun. (But then the digital camera would still be a give away!)
I tied Luke to a horse post as I explained to him what it was. Seconds later, a carriage came by and the driver called out that Luke was tied where he was going to be shortly!
Luke watching the horse and carriage.
Mom and Luke in front of one of the fruit wreaths, one of Sara’s favorite things in Williamsburg.
We tried on the hats but decided a picture was less expensive than spending over $40 for two hats. I’ll wait until he is older and can enjoy the dressing up. (I can’t wait actually, it was fun seeing the little boys in hats with guns and swords strapped to their belts.)
Luke’s cousins joined us for Thanksgiving Day, but I had to sentence them to the stocks for being too sweet.
I tried to put Luke in the baby stocks, but he wasn’t too thrilled about the idea!
I enjoyed seeing the recreated buildings and imagining what life must have been like for those who forged this New World for us. But not everything was re-created.
This church has been here for a very long time… here is the sign:
I bet your church hasn’t had continual services since 1715! (wow) I’d like to get a perfect attendance button for that!
The next time we come here, I want to come with an outfit like this. There were a lot of people just walking around in period costumes. It really brought the town to life.
It made it easy to imagine you were there when our country was being born.
Even George Washington showed up and gave a stirring speech. He seemed uneffected by all the strange looking people who had traveled through time to hear him.
There was even a colonial marching band that went down the street:
I would HIGHLY recommend this as a vacation spot, especially for families with kids ages 1st – 4th grade. We will probably wait 3-4 years and then definitely be back so that we can do more with Luke.
The PERFECT THANKSGIVING DINNER! (as with all images, click for a larger image!) Yes, that is turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and corn… and pizza, pretzels, mac & cheese and a rice krispie treat laced with chocolate. Best Thanksgiving Dinner ever!
We ate at the Great Wolf Lodge buffet – Sara enjoyed having no cooking and I enjoyed no clean up! And we may stay here next time, check out the indoor water park:
and this is only ONE view… it is massive!
The only bummer of the trip was saying goodbye to our nephew and niece (and their parents) who we don’t get to see often enough.
At the Kidology To Go conference yesterday, as usual, I had people bummed I didn’t bring Luke to the event and then asking to see pictures and videos of him. I realized that I have not made a “Luke Video” since Easter 2006, and when I showed that one on screen during a break, I had to say, “Well, that’s when he was a baby… he’s almost two now.” I’ve posted lots of short videos of him on my blog, but it was time for an update!
Since I’m alone this evening and missing my little boy (and Sara too!) I took a walk through iPhoto selecting some of my favorite pictures of Luke – and was amazed at how much he has grown up, just since he turned one, and one and a half….
So here is a video update of Luke from after his birthday to this month… all pictures in order of age, so you can see him growing up… all too fast.
Mommy and Lukie: I MISS YOU!
I’ll see you soon!
UPDATE: Here is a picture of Luke a few days later… watching the video of himself, he loves to watch it!
Well, I headed up North today to enjoy some fellowship with two awesome children’s pastors. The drive was absolutely beautiful the entire way!
The Fall Colors were simply amazing!
Of course, it’s hard to capture the beauty while driving, but I tried! In fact, I even made a video, which you can watch below, but both the pictures and video hardly capture the brightness of the colors that I was driving past for nearly two hours… this is simply a gorgeous area of America.
The most shocking was when I suddenly had a semi driving the wrong direction RIGHT AT ME!!!
YIKES! “You’re Going the Wrong Way!” (name the movie)
Fortunately, I was able to swerve around just in time to see that actually, it was being towed in reverse:
When I arrived I remembered that Todd has a wonderfully decorted and themed children’s ministry and made my way to his office…
I made way through the fun hallways to Todd’s office where I caught him in the act..
Playing with his Jesus Action Figure (with posable arms and gliding action)!! See those cool posters on his wall, here are some close ups: (as always on my blog, click any image to view larger)
The theme of his kids ministry is TAKE T.W.O. – from Reel to Real! I plan soon to give more detail on his thematic ministry, and an interview if possible! Like all good kids pastors, his office is full of toys!
And even though it is the youth ministry, I’ll still show you some cool pictures from the youth room:
I think Jesus can teach them a thing or two about being Super!
Will the REAL SUPER HERO please stand up?
Then it was off to lunch with another area CP (children’s pastor) who is part of the Kidology CP Team, Mark Romero, who is the CP at Manassas Assembly of God. Where do children’s pastor go to eat lunch?
K.C’s Restaurant of course. (I’m assuming that stands for Kids Church??)
And then it was off for a quick tour of Mark’s ministry as well:
Great Room Signs!
Amazing Murals!
Mark and Todd giving the Ark some support!
Hmmm? You don’t volunteer in the children’s ministry?
You get a pager with red yarn on it… yup! All parents are expected to serve at least once a month in the nursery/preschool, and if they don’t, the red ribbon lets them and everyone know they are a taker and not a giver. One of the most unique recruiting techniques I’ve heard of in awhile!
In the Kids Church room, the windows are covered with images of children… looks very cool.
And visitors get their picture of the “Fridge*Ship” metal door.
As well as a cool prize box to keep as a “thanks for coming.”
It was fun to get to meet Mark and see his ministry, and to get some relaxing time with Todd, his wife and two adorable kids. The evening ended with a trip to a fun family pizza buffet called CiCi’s where I think I got my coat switched with Todd’s daughter:
His kids are both sweet and a reflection of their parents. In our short time together I heard such kind conversation between them, and even a quick sincere natural apology from the 9 year old brother to his 6 year old sister when he accidently tripped her (which was my fault for saying ‘last one there’s a rotten egg’) that I knew these kids are in a home where Christ is not only loved and honored, but his way of life modeled before them. In my book, I don’t care how big or successful your church ministry is – it is the children’s ministry in your home that matters most, and so I’m happy to report that Todd is a great kids pastor, not because of what I saw in his building, but by what I observed in his kids.
I hope I will be a better dad than I ever was a children’s pastor. I’m more than happy to have a children’s ministry of ONE right now, my little Luke. (who I miss very much, even though I just said goodbye this morning) Mommy and Lukie – I’ll be back soon!
This weekend I had the privilege of participating in a Kidology To Go in Georgetown, TX, just North of Austin, the capital of Texas. I’ll be posting pictures later of the awesome children’s ministry rooms at NewChurch. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to hang out with CP Team member Jeramy Chapman.
We hadn’t seen each other since CPC Dallas in 2003 (I think), so it was awesome to catch up. Jeramy is the childen’s pastor at The Journey, a five year old mobile church. I will be writing a Kidology Report on mobile children’s ministry based upon this visit, so stay tuned! As a sneak peek, here is a flash video of the 20 minutes set up of the Kids Church room speeded up to three minutes. Enjoy:
But first, Texas style breakfast…
But before all the great ministry, Jeramy made me get up an hour earlier than necessary to take me to his favorite donut joint, Round Rock Donuts. Reportedly ranked #2 in the entire USA by an independant British pastry reviewer. (Krispy Kremes didn’t even make the list)
There were many choices, how would I decide? And then I saw:
The Texas Donut! WOW! It was the biggest donut I’d ever seen. Here it is next to large muffins to give a better idea of the size:
When in Texas, eat like Texans… so I ordered a Texas Donut:
After a few bites, (and a smaller chocolate covered yum yum) we were off to the Kidology To Go host where I continued to work on my donut during seminar breaks:
After the conferen it was off to Jeramy’s house to meet his wife and kids and to enjoy some of Jeramy’s hand-battered Steaks!
and WOW it was a great steak! I always make sure to get a steak when I’m in Texas, and this was one of the best yet! (Jeramy’s secret: Daddy Hinkles)
Dinner, Texas style! Sunday I went to Jeramy’s church (reporting on that later) and then on the way to the airport, we headed into downtown Austin.
Hands on experience? I decided to milk this opportunity to learn.
Then we decided to take a bus ride, and the driver nicely let me drive! But it was a bad idea, I quickly lost control of the bus:
It was a great weekend, and I look forward to posting more from the two wonderful children’s ministries I observed, but right now (on the plane!) I am just eager to get home to my beautiful wife and adorable son.
You may remember a few months ago when I went to One Way Street’sI-FEST conference as a Kidology Reporter to check out this event and report on Kidology the status of Puppet Ministry.
Well, it took longer than I’d hoped, but the Kidology Report on Puppet Ministry is now live, and features I-FEST as evidence that puppet ministry is alive and well. In addition to the MP3 interview with OWS’s new president, Todd Liebenow, I put together a video of several interviews I did while there, appropriately with puppets – both Gus, my main puppet, and a new little guy I bought while there. (already seen in a post about Puppet Team names interviewing a baby!)
It’s nearly 15 minutes long, but it will give you some glimpses into I-FEST as well as show you how I use a puppet to interview people. ENJOY!
Just returned from a week away with my family and wife’s parents in beautiful Galena, Illinois. While I was there I also became 38 years old! There was a time when I thought 40 was old… nah, 40 is still a punk!!!
One of the benefits of being away was that I had very little Internet or iPhone coverage… though I did have to snag an unsecured network here or there a few times to check in and make sure my staff was still working. (just kidding!)
Technically this was not a vacation (then I do disconnect completely) but this was a writing retreat, and it was wonderful to get some concentrated time writing the second Kidology Leadership Lab… something only hinted at so far on Kidology.org but soon to be released in October 2007! Whaddaya know, I’m actually starting to work AHEAD on projects! If you know me, you should be impressed that I am writing Unit 2 when Unit 1 is in the can but still unreleased! It’s all part of living a slower paced life now. But better than the focused time to write was the time with family in a beautiful natural setting away from the busyness of suburban life!
To give you a taste of our week and some glimpses into God’s creation in Northwest Illinois where General Grant grew up… enjoy this highlight video!
We were staying at Triple Creek Ranch, a Christian retreat center for pastors and missionaries that our family has gone to for over 15 years and where (blush) Sara and I spent a week of our honeymoon. We are sad that the ministry is now selling this Ranch so this was probably our last time there, which made this visit both sad and special. My mom, who is now checked in at the Heavenly Retreat with Jesus, considered Triple Creek Ranch her second home. So it brought back many happy memories of days relaxing with her in this beautiful place.
If anyone wants to donate a few million dollars to Kidology, we’ll buy it and make a retreat for children’s pastors! Well, we can dream, can’t we? The ministry is still going but will only be running their Colorado locations now. So i guess that is where we will head next time for some R and R… Relax and Re-creation!
Saturday Luke got to go to his first live concert at Ravina. This concert venue includes a pavillion with ticketed seats like most concerts, but also includes a huge outdoor lawn area surrounded by restaurants. It is a favorite entertainment destination for Chicagoans. My last visit to Ravina was for the Music of Star Wars.
Now it was Luke’s turn to join hundreds of other little tots for Ralph’s World live in concert!
Daddy and Son
Mommy and Son!
Luke seemed a little overwhelmed at first. He kept looking around at allll the kids and people and lights, and finally noticed the band on the stage. It was so cute, there will little kids everywhere dancing in the aisles. The ushers quickly gave up trying to keep the aisles clear.
Luke hesitantly joins the others jammin’ in the aisle.
We had never heard of Ralph’s World, but the music was fun. It was all about lemonade, and sand boxes, and water, and chocolate cake. We were surprised to see all the adults sining along as well – one dad in front of me was singing along to a song about how his baseball dreams never came true because of his zero batting average all through grade school. Definitely a song I could sing from the heart!
Toward the end we went for a walk and discovered that many of the front rows were empty since the bigger kids were all up crowding the edge of the stage… so we got to enjoy the last song from up close… enjoy this video of Luke jammin’
