Retro Post: Camp Watermarks

The last week of June, the Middle School Waves headed up to Camp Watermarks in Scottsville, VA for an amazing week of summer camp!

Each night we had session with an amazing time of worship and a message from our camp speaker surrounding the theme of "Break Free".

Then during the day, we kept busy with camp activities in the morning and lake activities in the afternoon.

High Ropes

Mole Ball

Human Fooze Ball

The dirt that resulted from Mole Ball and Human Fooze Ball.

The firing range...I shot my first gun!

There were also crazy games at all of our sessions lead by our fabulous host...

Gameshow McGraw

There was a cabin decorating contest: Toy Story won

and Brian Perkin's boys room actually won most tidy!

More camp activities: the obstacle course

Singing the "cologne" team chant above with spray motions.

Archery

More evening fun...

The 8th grade girls had to be "enforced"...so they sang I'm a little teapot...

and then got smashed in the face with pie!

Low Ropes...where we learned that "fear means GO!"

Final night...high fives from the amazing camp staff!

The girls in my cabin...I hung with different teams everyday and bunked with an awesome group of ladies...it was a pleasure serving with you all week!

The pictures don't even do the week justice because I can't be everywhere with my camera...but it was a blast and God was present all week encouraging and challenging all of our students to grow in their relationships with Him. Bonds were broken and friendships begun. Can't wait for Watermarks 2011!

Photo Alert

I'm loving all the portraits I've been doing lately!

Just today I had the chance to shoot maternity portraits for my friends Ashley and David. I posted a quick preview on the photography blog...more to come when I get back from Tampa.

You can tell they can't wait for Caleb's arrival!

Photo Alert

Prior to my trip to New Orleans (post coming soon) I had the pleasure of taking some engagement pictures of my friends Adele and Dustin at the Northwest River Park. I just finished posting the preview on the photo blog, so check them out!

www.theherndonportfolio.blogspot.com

4th of July Weekend

After returning home from Waves Summer Camp (posting coming soon), we were just in time to celebrate the birth of our nation. Saturday we saw fireworks with Alicia at the Chesapeake City Park grounds and then cooked out at my Mom's on Sunday where we caught up with Laura, TJ and Baby Reagan and Monday was our first surf day.

After surfing the morning away, we chilled over at the Whitlinger's new place in their pool and then took the dog with us to a BBQ at the Perkins. Samson even got to do a lap around their pool, which was so cute! It was a fun filled weekend full of great times with family and friends!

Shores Summer Spectacular: Hero Headquarters VBS

It's been a couple weeks now, but the summer has gotten off to a quick start and I have some catching up to do with the blogosphere...so here goes.

The week right after school got out, I had the opportunity to perform in our vacation Bible school's main program. I have missed being on stage so much, so I was thrilled to be one of the four main hero characters, Maintenance Maggie.

Each night had a lesson/theme, which I would introduce to the other three heroes and send the student recruits off to learn more about in their sessions.

The first night's was "Heroes do the unexpected".

To wrap up the nights activities, we would all come back together at Hero's Headquarters to review the night's lesson and have our Hero HQ Mega-Challenge Simulator. Our Heroes and a recruit from the audience had to answer a Bible question about the evening's Bible Hero and then the recruit would win the night's helpful device to use in a physical challenge.

The first night I got to spray Pizza Man and Water Woman with a super soaker gun as they tried to rescue a boat caught out in a hurricane.

The next night my device was a radio that looked just like a sandwich to remind everyone that Heroes do the unexpected.

Then with the help of some recruits that Clark Cant, our hero host,had found we had to find out the next evening's mission by unscrambling letters that were written on hero capes.

That evening's Mega-Challenge Simulator involved rescuing a kindergarten teacher from a landslide of toxic sludge.

The next night I had a special device to call Heroes into action because we learned that heroes take action the night prior.

Pizza Man came flying in on his roller blades, which was hilarious and thrilling as usual.

That night we had to unscramble the mission that had been written out on flippers.

Heroes step out on faith.

The last night I even got covered in red slime (our version of lava), but not to worry, I was wearing head to toe rain gear. Too bad I don't have any shots of that moment.

Then to close out each night we would do the pity party dance for the offering based on if the girls or boys won that night's giving followed by our Hero's Headquarters theme song.

It was a fantastic week...though after learning each day's lines, I don't know how those soap opera stars do it day in and day out!

I can't wait to see what next year's production holds.