July 2017 Update

Well, I had a physical a couple of weeks ago, and my PA said I’m very healthy, so you’re all stuck with me and these updates for a while longer.

 

I hope you all enjoyed celebrating our freedom earlier this month.  We are blessed to live in the country we do!  We know it’s not perfect—we won’t have a perfect society on earth until Jesus returns—but it’s the best there is, and we need to continue to work to make it better!

 

Saturday night, July 1, we went down to Hamlin Beach with Ella and her family to watch fireworks over the lake.  “The lake” for those of you not from around here is Lake Ontario.  Lake Ontario to me here is what Mt. Rainier was to me growing up in Seattle:  the epitome of God’s creative power and the beauty of His Creation.  Anyway, it was a beautiful night, and I always love fireworks!

 

Ivy and Hazel ready for the fireworks at Hamlin Beach

So, since I and we always love fireworks, we went again on July 3 to see our local fireworks in our town with Ella’s family and Hannah’s family and the Santos family from church (several other church families were there too:  Barry, Gagné, Roth, Beyer, and probably others I’m forgetting).  Iron Boley walked by and joined us too.  Some of you don’t know any of these people, but some do, so I thought I’d throw in the names.  Another beautiful night and excellent show.

 

On July 4, we went to the annual Rhodes picnic.  Rhodes is the family of Krista’s mom.  We were in a park on Lake Ontario, so you know I loved it.  We were glad to see family that we don’t get to see otherwise.

 

That Friday, July 7, everyone came over to our house, and we had tons of fun enjoying the sun and watching the granddaughters playing in the sprinkler.  The two best games seemed to be “get a drink” and “step on the sprinkler.”  Oh, you know I have pictures!

 

Alma

Hazel

Ivy joins the fun

I remembered my brother, Gary’s, birthday on July 10, and that was also the first night of our church’s evening VBS.  Levi is in his last year to be a VBS student, but Zach and Jem went too to help with sound and nursery.

 

On July 11, Ella’s daughter, Ivy, had her first birthday!  We had her party this past Sunday night, and I must say she’s an awfully cute one year old!

 

Hannah and Kevin celebrated their fourth anniversary on July 13, so congratulations to you two!

 

Our van recently passed a milestone, getting to 200,000 miles.  Congratulations to Krista who puts the most time in that van!  BTW, we’ve rather “undergrown” our van with kids moving out, getting married, going to college, etc.  So, we are planning to sell it.  If you know anyone who wants a 15-passenger van for not a lot of money, let me know.

 

I guess that was the commercial at the end of the presentation, so until August!

 

And one more picture of Alma's fancy hair

June 2017 Update

May 18 was my Mom’s heavenly birthday.  It’s hard to believe it was 6 years ago now.  I really noticed when I was back in Seattle last month that Mom and Dad were gone, but I rest in the promise that I will see them again!

 

I was in Seattle on Mothers’ Day, but my kids and I got together and got a gift for Krista.  Someone made a game for Krista to figure out her gift.  All her kids and grandkids who were there put on a sticky note with a letter on it, and she had to unscramble them to discover we had gotten her a dishwasher.  My son-in-law, Cody (Ella’s husband), did most of the installation work himself with a little help, and it is now happily being used.

 

Scrambled

She's figuring it out!

She's got the first four letters:  D I S H



And she's got it!  W A S H E R

On May 27, Krista and I went to Hamlin Beach State Park for a walk/date.  You may have heard that our water levels are much higher than normal around here because of a very wet spring.  We were able to see the effects of that first hand when we were there.  Paths were flooded and washed out, erosion damage was evident, and the shoreline that is usually visible was now under water.  It was beautiful in a scary way.  We enjoyed seeing the Canada Geese with their young families and other wildlife.

 

The rocks you can see under the water are usually fully uncovered. I would guess it is about 3-4 feet higher than normal

You can see erosion on the opposite side of the path

Large rocks that had been carried on shore

Debris over the path

Washed out path

Blue heron in flight

Canada goose family

For Memorial Day, we went to Hannah and Kevin’s house on Sunday for a picnic and cookout.  We played bocce ball and croquet, talked, laughed, and generally enjoyed God’s blessings of family.  On Monday morning, Zach and I marched with our Civil Air Patrol squadron in Batavia’s parade.  Then a bunch of us took bikes to Hamlin Beach park and enjoyed it again.

 

Fancy patriotic decorations to wear (Cai)

Seth (Abigail's boyfriend)

Levi

Me (wearing Bills t-shirt and Mariners hat!)

Ella and Ivy

Cody

Levi pulling Zach

There's a big fish in this picture. Can you find it?

There's a snapping turtle in this picture. Can you find it?

I’ve been able to go to a few of Levi’s baseball games now, and I really enjoy watching him and his team play.  They aren’t impressive in the win-loss ratio, but I think he likes it anyway.  I like to wear my Mariners gear Kevin picked out in Seattle to the games.  They aren’t impressive in the win-loss ratio either these days, but I still proudly represent them.

 

Levi at the plate

Levi on first

Levi on second

Levi pitching

And he struck him out!

On June 4, Jemmie sang “I Know My Redeemer Lives” in church for special music.  She did a really good job, and I trust God used it to remind our church family about His power in Creation and His love shown in our redemption!  You can watch it on YouTube if you want https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkjzUH9E-Iw.

 

Hannah’s birthday was on June 6, and we celebrated on the following Sunday with fresh strawberry pies made by Krista.  Delicious!!

 

We also remembered Kortney and Mat’s 3rd anniversary on June 13.  Congrats you two!

 

We’ve had some hot, steamy days here lately, but we were able to get our pool up, so we’ve been enjoying that way to cool off.  We love having our grandkids over to swim too, which makes it even more fun!

 

Of course, yesterday was Fathers’ Day, and we all went out to Five Guys for supper last night to celebrate.  I am a very blessed father with my kids, sons-in-law (four of whom are also fathers!), and grandkids.  My family got together and got me a new grill for Fathers’ Day.  Our old one had rusted out inside, and I was thinking of buying new parts for it, but now I don’t have to!  My new one is big enough to cook for the whole family at once.  Hey!  Was this a trick to get me cooking for everyone?!?!

 

I hope you fathers who read this also had a wonderful Fathers’ Day yesterday, and we’ll talk again in July!

 

Ivy enjoying mashed potatoes and corn

Ivy and Hazel fit perfectly by our front door!