Ah! The end of another great rewards trip, it seemed to fly by so fast, mainly because we were having tons of fun. This year we stayed down in the Akron area over the weekend. The evening started off with our check in to the exquisite Embassy Suites. It is such a gorgeous hotel; we were so blessed to stay there. And then later in the evening we went to the Carousel Dinner Theater. It is quite a sight to see. We had the opportunity to view the "Wizard of Oz". It was a wonderful performance, we felt like we were right in the play with all the characters acting within the audience. The munchkins sang their hearts out, when they followed the yellow brick road. And of course Dorothy figured out she wasn't in Kansas anymore, but made her way home by clicking her heals......well you all know the story......."there's no place like home, there's no place like"............ok, anyway, we had a great time there. After the play we headed to Starbucks which has been a tradition for our teen group. If you ever go there I recommend you try a double chocolaty chip frapiccino. Although if it is late at night and you take a rowdy group of teens there, and load them up with sugary drinks it might not be so pretty, j/k. Once our Starbucks expedition ended we went back to the hotel, where one of our fantastic chaperones sang his heart out….”Somewhere over the RAINBOW!”…. but was so rudely stopped by a hotel security guard. Well! Now we know not to sing at the top of lungs past hotel curfew. Hey at least he wasn’t singing a song like “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, or “We’re Off to See the Wizard”! The next morning we headed off to Mapleside Farms, in Brunswick. We had a great time at the farm; the food at the restaurant was awesome. Our teens were set out to go through a corn maze, where eventually all our teenage guys decided to wrestle on stacks of hay. It was quite interesting to see how they were so easily amused at trying to kill each other amongst a pile of hay. We girls had our own type of wrestling! Thumb-wrestling, we had no major injuries, maybe a broken nail, but nothing serious! The trip ended with a visit to the Ice-cream Shop “Honey Hut”. It was the perfect treat to end our trip. The Lord really blessed us on this trip, we had no major dilemmas with the bus, it ran great. I want to personally say thank you to the Storms for heading this up. You guys are the best, and always have a great time with the teens. Thank you to Mr. Ross for driving the bus. Thanks to Larry and Crystal Hamm, and Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton for chaperoning, you all are so much fun, and Mr. Hamilton at the next hotel you go to, try not to sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to loudly……j/k. And thank you Pastor Jones for allowing our teens to go on a Reward’s Trip, this year. I cannot say this enough but how much the Lord has blessed us, and blessed our teen group tremendously. And remember, if you ever get stuck in a magical land, filled with munchkins, and wizards, and lions and tigers and bears……….oh my…….just follow the yellow brick road, and you’ll realize there’s no place like home!!

                                                                                                               -Brittany Allen