July Update

As I said last month (and I’m sure you all remember, because my updates are so important to your lives that you practically memorize them), we went on vacation about a month ago.  My family that is still living at home (except for Abigail who had to go to school and work—Cai was still away on his summer Awana internship) and Hannah and Kevin (and baby Mickle) went camping at Letchworth State Park.  We have camped before as a family, but always in tents and always at Hamlin Beach State Park, so this was a branching out for us.  We rented two cabins at Letchworth.  Hannah and Kevin and our two boys, Zach and Levi, stayed in one, and Krista and I and our two girls, Amelia and Jemmie, stayed in the other.

We went on hikes, rode our bikes, ate like hungry tykes, played games (no spikes), and did other things we likes.  Yikes!  We had a great time “getting away from it all” and enjoying God’s creation.

Hannah and Kevin's cabin

Our cabin (I took the pictures this way to give a perspective of how close we were)

Riding bikes around the cabin loop

At Hannah and Kevin's cabin

We did a lot of relaxing

Well, some relaxed while others (Kevin) cooked.  Is it ready yet?

Levi loves camping!

A beautiful wood maiden

This was at the Mary Jemison "White Woman of the Genesee" area.  Google it

At the Middle Falls behind the Glen Iris Inn

If you play the above video, you can experience 10 seconds of our campfire.  We sing, discuss politics and the things of God, and have a great time.

Me doing my Acts 2 imitation

Krista, Jemmie, and I thought we'd do an "easy" 1/2 mile trail.  They didn't say it went straight up!

Two beautiful wood maidens

Hannah, Kevin, and baby Mickle like hikes too!

Cool footbridge

We came home on Sunday, June 21 (Fathers’ Day), tired but thankful for an amazing time.  We went to eat at Five Guys again, because we love it.  My kids gave me some cool Fathers’ Day presents:  a Buffalo Bills license plate holder, the extended edition of the Hobbit movie “Desolation of Smaug,” a promise to get the extended edition of “Battle of Five Armies” when it’s out in November, some nice sandals, one of those gizmos to read check engine light codes (which gives you an idea of the age of my cars), and a set of Duck Dynasty bobble-heads.  Yes, Duck Dynasty makes me happy.

Duck Dynasty Bobble Heads on my desk at work

Hazel is starting to crawl, so now her parents have to deal with a mobile baby (as do we when she visits), which makes life exciting.  She also likes to blow raspberries and style people’s hair.  Cody, her father, says the shampoo she uses smells suspiciously like spit-up and drool, but it’s not tested on animals—only on everything else in the house.

Blowing raspberries is most fun while eating!

This reminded me of Bugs Bunny's "Barber of Seville" routine

As of July 1, I am officially an employee of Atos www.atos.net, thus the “(Atos)” suffix after my email name.  I used to work for Xerox Services Information Technology Operations group, but Xerox decided to sell that branch off to Atos.  I’m still working at Xerox, as I have been since 1997, but my employer keeps changing.  Since I’ve been here, I’ve worked for EDS, Decision One, EDS again, HP, ACS, Xerox Services, and now Atos.  The corporate world is so much fun.

I am now completely in my new job.  I’m still learning, but I’m feeling pretty comfortable in handling things that come up.  I like it here!

Zach and I marched in another parade with our Civil Air Patrol squadron, this time in Warsaw.  No, not Poland—Warsaw is a village in New York.  That was on Friday evening, July 3, which was the same night our town had its fireworks.  We rushed back from the parade, and actually made it back in time.  Well, we would have, except that Jemmie was at a friend’s birthday party, and we thought we’d better get her, so we dropped off the kids at the fireworks, and Krista and I ran to get her.  We still saw the last half of the fireworks show, so that was nice.

This video shows us marching.  Zach is the sharp looking one in the front center holding our squadron's flag.  I'm the one in the back lagging behind everyone else.

July 10 was my brother, Gary’s, birthday.  When I emailed greetings to him, he wondered if the “Atos” in my email name was a new Greek nickname.  No, we’re not Greek, but maybe when you get older like he is, you start forgetting your heritage.

On July 11, Zach went with the Civil Air Patrol to help at the Geneseo Air Show.  He had a long day in the sun keeping people away from moving planes and fuel spills, but he enjoyed himself.  I was going to go too, but couldn’t at the last minute.

Hannah and Kevin celebrated their 2nd anniversary on 7/13.  Congratulations!

Levi has played his last soccer game of this year now.  In my totally unbiased opinion, he is one of the best players on the team, as well as being the best looking, but being a Matthews man, that goes without saying.  They actually have more games next week, but we’ll be at the David F. Wilson (Krista’s family) Family reunion, so we’ll miss them.  And I’ll tell you about that next month!