Ravi Zacharias International Ministries seeks to reach and challenge those who shape the ideas of a culture with the credibility and the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. With a team of individuals based in six countries, RZIM is committed to reaching this generation around the world - in the university, the arts, politics, business, and the church. Through open forums, community outreach, and various media, we seek to remove the barriers to the cross for the skeptic and we prepare Christians to give a reason for the hope within us.Our first Founders Weekend was in Cabo San Lucas, MX three years ago, last year it was in Chicago and this year, Phoenix. Ravi is a profound and amazing speaker and writer and we've been honored to be able to attend this special weekend for the last three years.
GG flew down from Michigan to watch Blaine while David and I attended the sessions. Saturday night was the 25th Anniversary celebration dinner, so I had the opportunity to wear a beautiful dress and David looked great in his suit! The food is always exquisite at this event, so I think we gained a few pounds on our trip.
The flight there was good, though Blaine does have trouble with his ears when taking off and landing and nothing helps. Because he's in pain, he won't drink, suck on his paci or do anything that might help. He just screams. Luckily, the flight to Phoenix was pretty painless.
When we arrived we discovered that our car seat was picked up by another family, and they left theirs so we spent an hour waiting and then finally filling out paperwork and getting a loaner from Southwest, hoping the other family would return our car seat (they did and we now have it back.)
GG and Blaine had a big time. They roamed our beautiful hotel, watched the ducks swim, played in the sprinklers and we all did our best adjusting to the time change. Though it was only a 2 hour difference, you try telling that to Blaine. He was up at 3:45 am (yes, for the day) on Saturday morning and 4:20 am on Sunday because his body said it was morning time! Yikes. Daddy took Blaine on a long walk and then to breakfast at 6:30 where the waiter said to David when they left, "We'll send the bill to your room for the destruction." Blaine is not the cleanest guy when eating and he ate almost everything on the buffet - and he ate FREE!
Saturday we had some free time to play and the weather allowed us some pool-time. Our hotel had four pools and a lazy river. Blaine loved floating down the lazy river with his vest on and throwing his ball up-river and watching Daddy dive for it as it floated by. You'll see his smiling face in the pictures.
Sunday we had time to kill before our flight so we went to the Phoenix Zoo. Blaine loves the zoo and can name almost all the animals. He loves the MunKeees (monkeys) and the Fllllmmingzzzt (Flamingos--we have no idea where his pronunciation comes from, but it's pretty hilarious to hear him say.) You'll see some pictures of the giraffes. Blaine and I got to feed them! He thought that was pretty cool (and so did I). He fed the Mama giraffe two pieces of lettuce and I fed her a nugget. She was almost 23 years old and was HUGE (as you can imagine.)
We managed to find our way downtown to eat dinner and then miraculously (with a little help) found our way back to the airport. A college friend of mine, Caroline, and her husband live in Phoenix and I was sad to not be able to see her.
We got checked into our flight and boarded with no problem, right on time - 7:00 pm. When we were just about ready to take off, the gate agent said he had "bad news" and that we couldn't take the plane, so we had to get off (luggage, crying toddler and all) and wait for another plane to be assigned to us. Because it was 7:00 pm (9:00 Austin time) we thought Blaine would sleep, but since we were now in the bright and loud airport he would not go down. Then he got to the point where he was so tired that he just couldn't sleep and so we began the flight experience from hell. We finally boarded a plane at 9:00 pm (11:00 pm Austin time - 4 HOURS past Blaine's bed time) and got in the air. His ears hurt from the pressure change and he was tired but couldn't sleep, so he screamed and then he wanted milk but of course this was the one beverage that was not on the plane. So, he cried and screamed. He stopped freaking out for short periods of time - to eat a bag of Cheese Nips and to read one of his books - but would then resume with the exhausted crying. The flight attendant tried to bring juice and more snacks, but we were past the point of no return. This is a flight that you would not want to be on. This is the flight that every parent dreads. David suggested that we put on a DVD, "Elmo's World" and (thankfully) this put Blaine to sleep... but only for about 30 minutes. When we started our descent into Austin his ears started hurting and so he was up for the next 20+ minutes screaming and crying. I even gave him some all-natural "calming pills" and they did nothing. What this did result in was Blaine screaming, "Pills, Pills, Piiiills!!!" Nice. It wasn't until we landed, got our luggage and put Blaine in his car seat that he finally fell asleep, at approximately 1:00 am Austin time. We were all tired and grateful to be home!
Now that we're home we have all adjusted and are getting some good rest. Blaine has spent the days with GG at the park and pond and in the toy room. Today GG made cookies and cleaned my floors (thank you GG) - what a vacation, huh?
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