I believe my ride to the shore left around 6pm and we got there just in time for the opening ceremony to start. We even had time to make two short stops on the way. :-)
When we arrived most people came inside to watch the opening with us. Some others we grilling and helping with dinner so they came in and out.
Though London is no Beijing they still did an incredible job putting everything together. I loved seeing the history unraveled. It made me proud of my British heritage.
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| The Olympic rings light up the stadium during the Opening Ceremony on July 27, 2012.
Credit: Ian MacNicol/Getty Image |
Anywho, we watched the entire opening, ate some greatly prepared hamburgers & hotdogs, and just had lots of fun hanging out in good company. We even had a bit of ERS car action going on throught the evening. Needless to say I had everything I needed and was quite content.
Eventually people started winding down and heading to bed. And by bed I mean we grabbed our sleeping bags and pillow and camped outside in tents. It was way hot a sticky outside but hey that's camping in the summer for ya. Most of us were able to handle sleeping outside the whole time. Only a couple slept inside. Total lame sauce if ya ask me. One, cough Ben cough, didn't even attempt to sleep outside. His sisters definitely gave him a hard time about it though. lol Got to love family right?
The next morning most everyone was up by like 7-8am. Breakfast was mainly prepared by Tony. He made some pretty bangin' eggs and pancakes. After breakfast some of us started to hang out on the dock by the water and learn how to catch some good old Maryland crabs.
We had a blast! Courtney and April split everyone up into teams in light of the Olympics and we competed in some games. Mainly we competed over which team caught the most crabs. lol Team Tapioca, aka my team, rocked!!! Carol was like a magnet for them. It seemed like any time she was by one of the lines a crab was biting. I was so glad she was on my team.
Crabbing carried on sporadically all day. Some of us stopped to chill off in the water, go canoeing, kayaking, and/or sailing.
I was totally outside ALL day, crabbing, swimming, laying out on the floaties and all that jazz. Originally I was hesitant to get in the water, other than on a raft, because I wasn't able to see anyhting in the water in any way at all. Wasn't sure how I felt about not knowing what could be swimming with me ya know?
But of course I couldn't get away with just floating on a inner tube. Ben decided I need to go for a swim and jumped from the dock and flipped me off the tube. Thanks a lot! Well that definitely got me over the whole not knowing what I'm swimming with thing real fast. lol
It really wasn't half bad. The water felt great. The current at that time was super strong though. As I was treading, I was basically swimming to fight to stay in one spot the whole time. It was wicked! Def got a good work out in. :-P
After spending loads of time with all that we had lunch, taco salad, and then more activities. We also went to play frisbee out in one of the fields. I totally zoned out at one point and nearly got my head taken off by the frisbee. HAHA! Never been more thankful to be short. After that we were all super sweaty and gross. So we jumped back in the water to cool off before dinner.
At that point a storm was starting to roll in. Now, I LOVE storms and summer rains. This was a special treat for me cause I've never seen a storm roll in over the water before. It was AMAZING! The was the calm before the storm and then massive winds. The lightning was epic too. We joked about how cool it would be if we got to see a funnel start to form. I believe I said "I'd be just as excited as I would be terrified!". Well, then it started raining. Unfortunately it was a cold rain and those aren't as fun so we ran inside.
We all got cleaned up for dinner, Spaghetti and crabs. Mmmm...yummy! My ride was leaving after dinner so I didn't stay through Sunday. Plus I was going home to welcome back my "little" brothers, Timothy & Mathew, since they returned from their missions trip (MP2) in California. My friend Kelly was a leader in training on their trip so I was excited for her to be back too.
Anyways, I went to church with the fam that morning. (I still haven't gotten a new car yet) But it was cool. Church was fabulous! Worship was out of this world awesome and the sermon just blew my mind. I haven't had a day where I have felt the Holy Spirit's presence that strongly in a while. It was refreshing. I was so excited about the music and worship that I couldn't stop smiling the whole time while singing. I probably looked like such a goof but I didn't care. Thanks def go out to those who helped prepare the worship. God totally blessed them to lead a wonderful and moving time of worship for our congregation. Totally needed!
Alright so winding down now. I got to see Kelly for the first time in FIVE weeks after church. Oh how much I missed her. It was a happy reunion. Me and my family had a cookout since the two youngest were back and then I took them to youth group later that night. I actually ended up staying cause they were going on a picture scavenger hunt. We formed a girls team and though I haven't heard the results I'd say the girls kicked butt.
Afterwards Kelly picked me up from church and we went to hang out with a couple friends and watch some Olympics.All in all my weekend was filled with nothing but absolute joy.
I am still smiling about it all!
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