August Update

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.

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.

Krista and her sister-in-law, Lori, amused by having the same shirt...

...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.

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!

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.

Hazel the ballerina

Tune in next time for September news!