Top 25 Adventures and Life Stories of 2013

Okay, after spending some time reflecting over the last year; my list is made and hopefully, I didn't miss anything...

I present the Top 25 Adventures and Life Stories of 2013

25.2 BLBA Camp where I met some great teenagers, like Brad and Calvin! (This add was for you Brad..._

25.1 Forgotten event...The Run or Dye Run, which was an activity on my bucket list. How did I forget to mention this??? Would have broke top ten easily... 

25. Visiting the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. A very unique opportunity to see how our American currency is made. 

24. Purchasing my first grill. Put it together and grilled in the snow with just my Donald Driver jersey. Arggghhhh, I’m a man!

23. Finding the famous LOVE statue with Amber and Jenna in Philadelphia. Got great couple pictures and will be one of my greatest finds with my greatest find and love

22. Jumping in the ocean in the middle of December. I had planned to do it on Christmas, but ended up doing it after. I believe it was like 40 degrees that day, and I ran, jumped, and hit the wave with fury! I actually, did it twice and then spent the evening with the shakes

21. Surviving not one but two youth lockins! The first one was a blast at the church and the second one was filled with go-karts, laser tag, go-karts, batting cages, did I mention go-karts?

20. Watching the Pirates break their consecutive season losing streak! Oh my, they have been losing most of my life! We had a winning season, playoff wins, and hope for the future. Putting it at number 20 is ironic; glad it was only 20 losing seasons...

19. Being a roadie for the Christian band, Disciple! Setting up their equipment and tearing everything down after the show. Awesome experience if you ever get a chance to; you’ll realize all the work that goes into getting a band up on stage 

18. Experience two great outreach events this year. Vacation Bible School was awesome. The creativity was amazing, the leadership was unreal, the volunteers were awesome and the kids had a blast. Harvest Fest was again a little better than past years; which was good because who would have guessed that we would have 200 visitors! Let’s do it again and better this coming year!

17. Attending the Called-Out conference with my youth. Amazing band from Minnesota performed awesome worship times. Relevant messages from Nate Ray. Great time visiting a church plant and learning about what goes into church planting. Fun times of playing basketball with new friends from the Chicago area. Great time spent with Kayla and Tyler during the event and on the road trips

16. Youth Mission Trip to Milwaukee! Five teenagers, my wife and myself spent a day in Milwaukee investing in a community. We picked trash, talked with people, moved things, and spent quality time in encouraging a neighborhood in the city. The teens were awesome and I know they are looking forward to next time 

15. First water park experience at Chula Vista all inclusive. Loved the time spent with my wife; and friends Brian and Megan. Very relaxing, fun water rides, big meals and great card games

14. Dunking a...tennis ball! Never dunked anything before and would love to dunk a basketball; but dunking a tennis ball was pretty exciting

13. Helping to lead and promote the Finding Faith movie event. It was great to assist in the event, meet Erik Estrada, and participate in sharing the awareness of sex trafficking and   warning teenagers to be careful when they are on the internet

12. A return trip to Liberty University. Man, has it changed! The baseball field is amazing; and I wish I could have done a little more snooping around to see the offices and box offices but it was locked down for Christmas break. The theater area was sweet. I never did find where they moved the Seminary...I walked on the 3rd floor, 4th floor and the roof of Demoss; which was a big no-no when I was there and now is all classrooms. I also kissed my wife on campus, and got no reps...Bonus: I got to see and spend time with my close friends; Sam, Leanne and their boys!

11. Visiting Niagara Falls! Amazing the power of the falls. The sound, the mist hitting you from a distance away, the beauty of it! I am so glad I was able to see it; it is one of God’s amazing creations

10. Turkey Bowling. One of my favorite youth events of the year. I laid down tarps in the church basement, set up water-filled soda bottles for pins, and used a frozen turkey for a bowling ball. One of the coolest things ever

9. Remember that time when I rode a shark? That’s right a mechanical bucking shark at the Outer Banks. I took four rides on it and clocked 8, 5, 20 and 5 seconds time; I believe

8. My wife did two similar creative things for me this year. For my birthday, she gave me 12 dates for each month of the year. For Christmas, she did 12 days of Christmas and gave me a gift daily with relation to that number of day. Pretty sweet

7. An Epic Paintball Battle. The one where I ran out of paint and continue to move down the field dodging paintballs. Ducking, running, rolling, falling? Till, I was in striking distance and then it happened. I charged, taking two middle schoolers by surprise and with my gun inches away; I got their surrender!

6. The three in the morning adventure in and out of Canada! What was I thinking?  I wanted to go to Canada and it was my only opportunity. So Rodney drove us up to the border; then Reggie, Dave and I walked through customs. We had about a hour window, I needed to be at the airport at five in the morning. I was able to see Niagara Falls in the dark from the Canadian side and scratched visiting Canada off my list. We walked as fast as we could back across the bridge and I handled the questions by the U.S. border patrol. We jumped in the car and made it in time to the airport. What a memory with great friends

5. Buffalo trip! Where I got a chance to see my close friend Jeff get married. Spent a lot of quality time with great friends: Jeff, Rodney, Dave, Reggie and Heath. Lots of great stories, like me equipped with a gorilla mask doing the Harlem Shake at the wedding; a ten minute drive by/drop off visit to Niagara Falls and a three in the morning adventure in Canada!  

4. Spending my first Christmas with my family in like six years! Great memories. From Christmas light viewing, shell hunting, aquarium viewing, thrift shop dealing, Big Al’s, playing Deer in the Headlights and Boom Boom Balloon, a trip to Liberty, and time well spent with Mom, Dad, and Sister 

3. Visiting my family in Pennsylvania and being able to spend time with my Grandma! Perfect timing to visit; as I got a chance to spend time with her and be there for her funeral. She was a God-fearing woman that loved people, the time I spent was so valuable to me 

2. One Year Baby! Married life is awesome, I’m enjoying sharing life with someone very special to me and getting to know her more. Love you Beautiful ;)

1. As always!!!!! One more year of building and investing in my relationship with Jesus