SPRING BREAK WITH MY YOUTH

So like every year, we take a spring break trip with our youth. Rarely is this week a "break" for me at all, but it sure is a blast, and I'm even more excited when we all get home safe and sound :)
The first weekend of Spring Break I take the Sr High group to CO so we can go skiing and snowboarding. Last year we went to SolVista, and this year we decided to go to ElDora. Both places are fun to ski at! They have a family/small group atmosphere where you actually get to see your group during the day unlike some of the other bigger ski resorts. At both places the staff was great and we had all of our gear ready for us when we arrived.
This year was super exciting because I was able to bring my brother-in-law (Eli Stewart) along for the ride with us. For every ski trip we always have time in the evening of every night that we are there to have a message, and I thought since the students hear Norm and I talk all the time, it would be great for them to hear a message from another person that I admire. Eli is a youth pastor at Junction City Nazarene Church. He has been there for 3 years now and is doing such a great job. Its nice to have another youth pastor in the family because him and I chat and pass ideas back and forth :) Ben (my husband) was also excited that Eli was coming on the trip because growing up those 2 went on many trips together (including ski trips with their youth group when they were young). When you get those 2 together you just can't stop laughing, they are hilarious together and can turn any frown upside down :)
We had a great few days in the mountains of CO, and were sad to leave. I didn't get many pictures :( because I was having to much fun snowboarding down the mountain with the youth... but here are a few that I do have...

The van ride out to the Mountains

GREAT way to start EVERY youth trip... I definitely need it :)

We stopped in Colby, KS (it's tradition) to get gas and get some STARBUCKS!!!

Eli Steward (our speaker) and I

It snowed almost every day where were there while we were on the slopes, this was the view from the van as we are heading to the ski slopes.

My amazing husband and I.

THE GROUP!

So after a few days in the mountains of CO, I came back did laundry, visited family in KC for a day, and then Ben and I were back in the church vans with MORE students. This time there were 24 middle schoolers ! We went down to Wichita for the middle school spring break trip... we had a BLAST!!! The weather wasn't gracious to us like I was hoping it would be, but even with my Plan B that we had to do, it was still so much fun.

When we got into Wichita we went to All-Star-Sports where the kids had 3 hrs of unlimited go-karts, amusement rides, mini-golfing, and bumper cars. Can you say Heaven for middle schoolers? :) It was great to just let them go and do what they wanted. I did get some great pictures of them at the amusement park. Some of the students wanted to take pic's with my camera also, so I lent them my camera :) Those pictures turn out... well..... interesting :)

After All-Star-Sports we went to A51 (the youth center @ First Church of the Nazarene where I was the assistant youth pastor at for 5 yrs) and we got some pizza. It was great being back in A51 and letting my students see the church that I had started my ministry in. :)

After pizza we went Ice Skating...it was great to see students who had NEVER BEEN ice skating try it for the first time. Some fell, but they all did awesome.

We came back to A51 and then played Hide-and-go-seek IN THE DARK!! That was a crowd pleaser for everyone involved.

The next day we woke up and went to the East Mall and played a scavenger hunt! Some students have never ridden on a escalator before so it was funny that half of my group was just riding up and down them. (that's when you know you live in a small town) haha

Then after lunch we went to the Warren Theatre and watched the movie "The Croods" It was so funny to see how some of the students reacted when we sat down in the memory foam seats and the seat started to form to their butts haha. They were just amazed. MUCH different than Salina's theatre.

Overall it was a awesome trip and I LOVED spending time with all of the students! I have such a great group of Youth and I love them all very much!!

Now that I have talked A LOT here are the pictures from our middle school trip :) Enjoy !!