Topping the
news this month is the engagement of our daughter, Carissa, to Matt
Wilkinson! We are very excited for this step in their lives. They
are planning a November 14 wedding. Right now the two of them are in
Nepal helping with the ongoing relief needs there after the earthquakes earlier
this year. They’ve actually had more, although milder, earthquakes again
this week. This past Sunday was Krista’s birthday, and she was very
pleasantly surprised to get a birthday phone call from Nepal! They are
doing well, but please continue to keep them in your prayers.
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| Carissa and Matt at Kortney's wedding |
Right after I
wrote last month, we left for a family reunion of Krista’s siblings and their
children and grandchildren. We rented cabins/cottages at Lighthouse
Christian Camp in Barker, with which some of my Matthews relatives are quite
familiar. I believe my Dad and his family went there as children.
We had a fantastic time playing games, visiting with family we haven’t seen in
some cases for 10 years, playing instruments together, singing together, worshiping together, and just enjoying the beauty of Lake Ontario.
Krista’s brother, Terrelle, arranged a family competition where we earned
points in the form of rubber ducks by winning board games, sports activities,
relay races, etc. throughout the week, with a grand prize of a giant rubber
duck. My family came in second to Krista’s sister, Conny, and her
family. Close, but no duck.
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| Krista and her sister-in-law, Lori, amused by having the same shirt... |
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| ...but they both look fabulous! |
The week
ended up with our annual reunion of Krista’s father’s siblings on Saturday,
also at Lighthouse. This reunion always has way too much good food, fun
visiting aunts, uncles, and cousins, and their families, and a generally good
time.
The next day,
several of my kids who had come for the reunions stayed and went to church with
us. Then we ate together and played a game or two before they had to
leave for home.
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| Everyone at our house playing a game |
The week
right after that was our church’s evening Vacation Bible School. We’ve
done it the last few years in the evening, which I really like because I miss
day VBS's since I have to work. This year my main role was helping to
count the money the kids brought in for one of our church’s missionaries.
We had a competition between the boys and the girls which they both sort of
won. The boys brought in more money three days out of five, but the girls
brought in more money overall. The best news was that they raised almost
$800 for our missionaries! This enables them to buy an iPad they wanted to
help with schooling their children, and they were thrilled.
Others in my
family helped in the VBS too. Cai was in the skit and helped in a class,
Abigail and Amelia led and helped in a class, Zach helped with sound, and
Jemmie and Levi attended.
Two exciting
weeks in a row left us quite tired, but we are thankful God allowed us to have
both of these experiences.
Last week Cai
went on a camping trip with his girlfriend, Amy’s, family at Indian Lake in the
Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. They got a little wet when it
rained quite heavily overnight once, but he said they had tons of fun
anyway. They got to go white water rafting, which he says was amazing,
and he wants us all to do it. I think that would be very exciting, although
maybe because I’ve read Patrick McManus’s stories about rafting, I’m a little
wary. If you don’t know what I’m talking about regarding McManus’s
stories, do a Google search on McManus Narrows, and you should get a result
that allows you to read an excerpt from his book, A Fine and Pleasant Misery
that will explain what I mean.
This past
Saturday, we spent the day at Seabreeze, our local water and ride park.
We all got to have loads of fun and the weather was perfect. “We”
includes Krista and me, Hannah and Kevin, Ella and Cody and Hazel, Cai, Abigail
and her friend Seth, Amelia, Zach, Jemmie, and Levi, and Krista’s sister,
Nanita, and her daughters, Deborah and Anna. My favorite was the
Whirlwind roller coaster, although the classic Jack Rabbit roller coaster was a
close second. Zach discovered that the Jack Rabbit is the oldest
continuously operating roller coaster in the U.S., and the fourth oldest
currently operating coaster in the world. Pretty impressive for little
old Seabreeze!
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| Hazel loved the train at Seabreeze! |
I mentioned
Krista’s birthday this past Sunday, but she’s worth more than one
mention. The disadvantage to her is that if she wants good food, she
pretty much has to cook it herself, as I’m no help. I should draft our
daughters and sons-in-law to do some cooking for her, since they are quite good
at it. Anyway, we had grilled chicken (I did do the grilling so I guess
I’m not totally useless, just mostly), salt potatoes, sweet corn, Kevin’s
spinach/blueberry/strawberry/almond/goat cheese salad, and fresh blueberry pie
for dessert. Yes, it is as good as it sounds. Actually, it’s better
than it sounds.
That
afternoon our family did its fantasy football draft. I thought I was
getting a really good team, but the system gave me a D grade for my draft, and
predicts I’ll have a 2-12 record. Hey, I have Marshawn Lynch and the
Seahawks defense, so I don’t believe them.
Zach started
soccer practices last night. He’s playing with a local Christian
school. Their league allows homeschoolers to play on the team, so he
joined up again this year (he has played for them before). He was quite
exhausted after that first practice since it was really hot and humid last
night, and the coach was working mercilessly on getting them all back into game
shape. He said he still enjoyed it.
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| Hazel the ballerina |
Tune in next
time for September news!
