M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I !!!!

Ok, I know we have been back for over a week now, but I am just now getting back into the groove of things enough to post about this awesome trip. And due to the length of the trip and number of pictures I have, maybe we should take it only a couple of days at a time.

So in this post I am going to cover Friday and Saturday (July 13th & 14th)

We met at CBC at 3:50 a.m. on Friday and left at 4 a.m.

Considering that it was 4 a.m., this picture is pretty good of most everyone.

Our journey took a total of 14.5 hours so that we arrived at F.O.A. (Friends of Alcoholics) right around 6:20 p.m. if I remember correctly. The ride was definitely interesting in a 15 passenger van with 14 passengers. Between talking, music, and silliness it was a fun ride.

Oh yeah, I forgot about all the digital photos being taken in the van. Some very interesting ones to be shared later. Maybe once I get done posting about the week, I'll have to just post crazy pics, because our group took plenty of them!

I couldn't resist including this silly pic of Ryan playing dress up in the van.

Before we got to F.O.A., we stopped at the wonderful, beautiful, and hospitable MS Welcome Center.

Our last hour of driving involved heavy rains, but when we finally reached our destination, the rain had stopped. And everyone was glad to be out of the van. I mean if I had heard "Hi, I'm Kevin Jonas and I'd like to sell you a caaarrr" one more time, my head may have exploded. So as soon as we got there we let everyone get situated in their living spaces.

Welcome to F.O.A. We'll talk about that white fence in a future post.

This is the FOA sign...I'm sure there are fire ants lurking.

This is the building the boys stayed in, and...

This was the girl's house.

After getting settled we walked around the staff side of the ministry and some of us visited Mamaw who although she didn't say it wanted to "WA PSH" "WA PSH" us with her cane. Ok, maybe I just made that up, but it was still fun to "WA PSH" all week. I actually am doing it out loud now as I type. "WA PSH" So much fun!

Since we were "fixin" to eat "supper", we headed back to the Philemon house (boys dorm and meeting hub) where we had burgers, chips, and "Cokes". After getting used to all the roaches, we met together to discuss some rules and regulations as well as the next days activities, and then dispersed for the evening. Most of the girls went back to their house to settle in and sleep. The boys and Alison and Melinda headed to the living room for a nice game of Risk (which was played all week during free time - not that 1 game but like 3 or 4 games).

However, on this first night the Risk game took an interesting turn. Why you may ask? This is why!

To some, this looks like an ordinary picture. To those who were there, this picture needs no explaining. But for those who were not, brace yourselves for this. In Mississippi there are roaches. At F.O.A. there are many roaches.

This picture hung in the living room where the Risk game was taking place. Someone saw a roach come out from behind it. Then another. So I walked over to the picture, pulled a corner towards me to see behind the picture, and many roaches began coming out from behind the picture. I do not lie when I say there were probably 30 or more roaches behind that one picture. Can I get an "Amen" from someone present.

So little by little I would move the picture and smash a roach or two. Then we found some roach powder, and Mr. Sadler put some of that around the picture frame. But then we decided just to have a roach killing. So Alison got the video camera, and the boys took off their shoes and waited for Ryan to remove the picture. We then quickly smashed the remaining roaches (by this time only about 10-12 were left). What a great memory! Lucky for us, those roaches were just little baby ones. They couldn't have been more than an inch long a piece. Now the 2-3 inchers are the nice ones.

Ok, looks like I'll have to do one day at a time. This post is already long. Well, that is a good start. So next time, I'll cover Saturday. Until then see "y'all" later. "WA PSH!!"

Wet and Cold; Six Flags part 2

Ok, ok, I know I said I would post some more pics of Six Flags soon, but those of you who come to my blog often know that this is soon in comparison to how much I usually blog.

So after lunch we headed back into the park for an afternoon of fun. And not wanting to see our lunch again (gross!), we decided to start the afternoon off with a few slower rides. So we decided to go for the water rides. First things first, some folks decided to change into swimming gear in order to prepare for what the rest of us wanted to deny - that we would get wet.

As you can see, Ryan was making a pretty loud statement with his red and yellow trunks. And I think he was rather happy about it.

After changing (the girls didn't take as long in the bathroom this time), we headed straight to the Roaring Rapids line. It was pretty long, but we waited and got to see others coming down the rapids getting soaked. The roaring rapids consists of a huge inner tube that seats 12 people (we had 13, so we split up) and you go down a river. About halfway through, this guy is in a little tower and as you make the corner he hits the appropriate button and shoots water at you. Then as you are entering the home stretch, people can pay money to push a button and shoot you with water. That is what the people are doing in the background on the picture below as a tube is coming down the rapids.

After this ride, I think the wettest person was probably Kathleen; she got soaked. Everyone got wet though as you can see from the picture below.

Yeah, that is pretty funny. Jakob and Brad got pretty wet. I got wet too, but somehow even though I was sitting next to Brad I didn't get as wet as he did.

After this ride we decided to be gluttons for punishment. So it was on to the logs and boy did we feel water logged (ha, that's funny) after we got done.

This was us waiting in line, well 4 of us. Although I did make it into the picture. Do you see me? What a nice group of young ladies. As you can see of the 4 Kathleen is the wettest (hair) and the fun had only begun.

This picture if of a water logged Mr. M Most of us decided to put 4 people in a log. Well the only bad thing about that is that you are then heavier which causes more water to end up in the log and on you. Obviously Mr. M was in a log with 4 people. The group in my log didn't fair much better.

After this ride, there was only one more wet ride left and it was the wettest of all. However, on the way we stopped at the Eagle to get a quick blow dry. The eagle was very nice with some nice drops.

I can't remember the name of the last ride, but I would call it the super soaker. Basically, you are in this big boat. You get taken up a conveyer belt (not too high) and then you go straight down into water and the water goes everywhere. At the bottom of the drop there is a bridge that some people stand on and get soaked by the water. Going down and hitting the water you think it wasn't that bad, but then all of a sudden the water that went up starts coming down and basically lands right in your lap and you are drenched. By the way, I should mention that not everyone went on this ride. Some folks were tired of getting wet. If I remember correctly the participants of this ride were Rachel, Liz, Jakob, Andrew, Brad, Rick, Ryan, Melinda (that's right, Melinda rode this one) and myself.

As soon as I took this picture, I scrambled to get my camera in my pocket and then braced myself because about 2 seconds later we got drenched. This is the view from the bridge I just mentioned and a few of us held on for dear life and took a shower. Ok, it was more like being blasted with a ginormous fire hose than a shower. In fact the force was so powerful that Jakob's glasses flew off and were never to be seen again (well, for sure Jakob couldn't see them but none of the rest of us could find them either).

At about this point, most of us were ready for a fresh batch of clothes and a towel. The next best thing....ride roller coasters and dry out. So we did. Including the viper and the bull. And that dried us out some.

After all the rides and roller coasters we went on I felt fine. But something about this advertisement at Six Flags made me want to toss my cookies. I think it was the middle picture of the Jonas sisters. By the way, my camera was stolen from me for this picture to be taken. I would never have wasted a good picture on this!

Finally we made it to the end of the day. And despite getting soaked, we had a great time. We packed it in and headed for McDonalds for dinner and then back to the church to get picked up. But not before getting one last picture.

What a nice looking group of folks.

Can't wait until next year!