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Hi everyone.  I’m going with our oldest three to Indianapolis for the National Fine Arts Festival.  To help them get ready, they’ve performed twice at our church.  Here’s a video from Sunday night, July 29th. 

It’s been tough getting back into the swing of things.  I think most of the kids that went on the NFAF trip went straight to school on Monday.  I didn’t get to work until Tuesday afternoon.  I though having an extra day would be helpful but I think it made things worse!

But we’re already looking ahead to next year’s entries.  I’m hoping to see a lot of ET’s kids headed to Indianapolis. 

Maybe the state of Georgia (or at least Muscogee County) will get this first day of school thing figured out by then.

Meanwhile, I’m learning what I can about Microsoft’s Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7, and Office 2007, all due out later this year.

Sunday morning dawned bright and still too early after a full week of walking, walking, and more walking!  We ate breakfast at IHOP (rode the bus) and then returned to the hotel to pack up and head for home.

After a slow start out the door and heavy traffic on the Florida Turnpike, we made great time with Pastor Jason charging…er, I mean, leading the way home.

Call time Monday was 6:15am at Pastor Jason’s house to do some yard work, but I wasn’t there to see who else didn’t show up!

Wow!  Our week of National Fine Arts Festival is over…or is it?

On Saturday, we all (except for two) got up early and headed over to Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park.  It was a hot, muggy, central Florida day, but we enjoyed ourselves.

We took a break from the park for lunch at Taco Bell…I mean Chick-fil-a…no, it was McDonald’s…oh that’s right–it was KFC!  Thanks, Hannah, for picking out such a good spot for lunch!  lol

Some of us took an extended break from the heat, but about half of the group headed back to the park for more adventures.

I went and visited the ‘theme park artifacts’ reseller Mouse Surplus.  I picked up a few small items, but I just didn’t think we could squeeze that monorail car into the back of the van.  Maybe next time!

Dinner was at the Mythos restaurant in Islands of Adventure.  Later I took Jordan, Carlie, and Alex for ice cream at Beaches and Cream.  Wow–that “Kitchen Sink” holds a lot of ice cream!

After a day in the heat we were all pretty worn out and ready for a chance to sleep in.

More performances = more walking!

Friday was a good day.  The percussion ensemble did a fantastic job early in the morning.  Even the reverse slides were noticed by the evaluators.  Great job, team!  Thanks for all of your hard work and extra practices!

I stayed with Alex and Hannah to attend some workshops while the rest ventured off to the hotel and lunch.  We caught back up with them in time for the mass choir and orchestra rehearsals in the afternoon.

What a blessing those groups are!  I was very blessed even during their rehearsals!  (You can check out their performances in the evening session’s video over at the official web site: http://finearts.ag.org/2006.)

 A couple more workshops, more hotel lounging, and it was time for dinner at Chili’s.  The staff there did a good job of getting us in and out quickly, but we underestimated the traffic on I-Drive on a summer Friday afternoon.  The kids were late for their call times back at the OCCC, but that’s OK: it meant most of them in the choir got to sit on the front row, which made it extremely easy to find them!

We were all surprised to hear, during the awards presentations, that Ashton Powers was one of the three finalists in her category.  Way to go, Ashton!  That’s incredible!  Seek to honor God and He will honor you.

After the service, we took a shortcut out of the convention center, took the road less taken out of the parking lot, and quickly found ourselves back at the hotel.  “We need to celebrate” was the consensus, so the collective mind decided on a stop at Starbuck’s.  Better than Ben & Jerry’s?  Maybe not, but as I pointed out, it was a collective decision!  All of us non-coffee drinkers were assimiliated!  ha ha

Back at the hotel, we gradually unwound.  Must get sleep before a day at Universal’s Islands of Adventure!

Check out the Photo Gallery (link is on the right under ‘Family Favorites.’)

Another long day!  We started off with breakfast in the hotel…in our hotel hallway, that is, thanks to Ms Jane getting us some breakfast items at our local—you guessed it—Wal-Mart!

Justin had a callback for his male vocal solo early in the morning.  He did a terrific job singing “No More Night.”  As it turned out, Justin is also one of the singers on the praise team for Friday night’s celebration service!  Way to go, Justin!

Another trip to Wal-Mart (since Pastor Jason ran out of DVDs) and it was lunch at Wendy’s!

In the afternoon we were back to the convention center for Kyle’s percussion solo, Justin and Lindsey’s (and Kyle’s) presentation of their collaborative songwriting entry.  What a performance!

The Powers family was able to join us late in the afternoon, just in time for, yes, another percussion ensemble practice!

Dinner at Uno’s (since that was the second meal there, should we call it Duo’s?) was wonderful, and we were all stuffed.

Since the evening session was a showcase of the winning entries in several categories, about half of the group elected to go play instead.  After filling up the Eaglet with gas (oh my!) we made our way over to Downtown Disney.  It was a busy place, but we were able to locate each other by the huge sea monster made of Lego blocks with only one incident.

It’s a great comfort to know that when you go with God, you go with His protection, whatever form it may take: the local sheriff’s deputies were Kyle’s backup.  (Kyle, don’t you know not to talk to strangers?  Lol!)  More later!  And more pictures soon, I promise!