LTC 2013

A weird thing happened this weekend.  We went from being the youth group chaperons to a youth event, to the parents of a youth who is participating in that kind of event!!!  It's a super weird feeling for me.  We took Elle to participate in her first LTC on Friday, up in Dallas.  We have been preparing and studying and working for a few months now to help her be ready for all of the things she wanted to participate in.  It's been a lot of constant work.  And now it was all coming together.  She did three preconvention events, those being Art, Bulletin Boards, and Daily Devotional, where she was suppose to read her Bible every day for 40 days and keep a prayer journal.  A by-product of the last event was that Ava also wanted to keep a prayer journal so now both of them are writing down people and things they want to talk to God about, and then using it to pray to Him.  Watching them grow and begin that spiritual journey is the most wonderful thing as a parent, that I can witness.  I am so excited that we are getting to provide her with this.  Anyway, the other event that she participated in was Bible Quiz....and let me tell you, it's not for the faint of heart.  IT.IS.HARD.  Her best friend at church also participated with her, so their little 2 person team of 3rd graders studied the book of Matthew over and over and over in preparation for the quiz.  I'm pretty sure they know that book better than I do.  So we got to Dallas on Friday afternoon, turned in her artwork and paperwork for the other preconvention events and then headed out to eat with Kimmy and her parents at an Italian place in the middle of downtown called Campisi's.  Their pizza is the best.  Afterwards, as all of our nerves were beginning to buzz, we headed back to the hotel to prepare to do Bible Quiz.  The girls both looked pretty calm and cool...is was the mothers and coach that were nervous.  We just wanted the girls to be proud of themselves.  There were 25 other teams there.  There was only one other 3-4 grade team and five 5-6th grade teams.  The rest were 7th-12th graders.  Out of the 7 teams for 3rd-6th grade only two teams even scored high enough to earn a bronze medal...and guess who one of the teams was????  That's right, the little 2 girl team of 3rd graders, the smallest team there, and one of the youngest got a BRONZE!!!  We were ecstatic!  That test was extremely difficult and our girls did awesome!  After that event, it was getting late, we were all exhausted and it was time to sleep.  On Saturday, we walked all around the hotel watching all the convention events.  Around noon, we headed to an old time trolley car in the heart of downtown for a free ride around the area.  The kids were super excited for that.  Then we headed to eat at a place called Twisted Root Burger Co.  It was absolutely delicious and I'm STILL full from eating there.  Our family had such a wonderful time at LTC.  It was such an exciting feeling to begin that journey of having children that can participate in youth activities that will help them gain knowledge of the Bible, but more importantly ignite a fire in their bones to be passionate leaders/servants in the Lord's church.

The girls waiting to start the quiz with their coach :)

Shawn went to say a quick prayer with them before getting going.

A group of nervous women...1 coach, 2 moms

Our family

Elle with her artwork...it got a gold!

Our hotel next to the big tower...it was a gorgeous hotel and our family did SO well staying in one room...I think we are finally over the hump of having little ones and sharing a sleeping space and it being difficult.