July 2020 Update

Well, it was another rather uneventful month, but since I know you all live and die for these updates, I’ll tell you about the little that did happen.

My local family decided to do “Covid camping” over the July 4 weekend.  Instead of going to a campground or camping area of a park like we have before, the Mickles, the Sommers, and my kids set up tents in the Mickles back yard, and we camped there.  Krista, Jemmie, and I spent the days with them, but slept at home.  We swam at our house, ate camping-type food, and enjoyed fireworks that Kevin and Cody provided.  None of our local areas had big fireworks displays like every other year, but we almost feel like we enjoyed our own private fireworks shows better!  Cody and Kevin did a great job entertaining us with explosions of light and color.

I remembered my brother, Gary’s, birthday on 7/10, and we celebrated Ivy’s 4th birthday on 7/14.  Her birthday is actually 7/11, but Krista, Jem, Levi, and I were gone then, so we had her party on 7/14.  Ella made a really cute kitty cake (kitties are Ivy’s current thing) that was also delicious!  The other celebration this month was Hannah and Kevin’s 7th anniversary on 7/13.

I’m sure you’re all wondering, where were Krista, Jem, Levi, and Greg on 7/11?  Well, I’ll tell you.  I’ve kept you in suspense long enough.  We took an amazing, exciting, fun-filled, all-expenses billed to us trip to beautiful…

Well, the people were beautiful…

PHILADELPHIA!

Sorry if that seems anti-climactic.

We had talked about going there earlier this spring/summer, but Covid kept us from doing it.  Now our governor keeps adding states to a mandatory quarantine list, that if you come to New York from those states, you have to quarantine for two weeks.  As of now, Pennsylvania is still OK, so we went.  Also, Cai and Amy moved this past week to Kentucky where Cai will be attending Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to work on a doctorate in Old Testament, so we wanted to visit them in the Philly area before they were further away.

We spent Friday night with them, where they fed us and we talked and talked.  Saturday morning, we helped them with some cleaning of their old apartment, and then we all went down to the city to see Carissa, Matt, Ruby, Caitlin, and Ben.  Ruby did a great job entertaining us all, and Ben introduced us to the amazing “sport” of marble racing for those so desperate for any kind of sports.  Somewhere he had found YouTube videos of marble races that were actually more entertaining than you would think.

Sunday morning, we met at Carissa and Matt’s again and worshipped virtually together from their live-streamed church service.  It was nice to hear more people singing than just our own immediate family.  And Carissa had been a part of the worship team that recorded the song leading, so that was cool too.  After enjoying lunch together with them, we headed back home.

So, that’s our sort-of-but-not-too-eventful month.  And again I have no pictures or videos to make this more exciting.  Sorry.  Maybe in August, but no promises.

Your father, father-in-law, cousin, uncle, brother, brother-in-law, nephew, husband, friend, Greg