schools out for summer

School ended June 8th (or around there somewhere). Now it's Summer. It's the delicate balance of work at the church, Young Life work at home, babysitters, the kids being home all the time, bigger grocery bills because everyone's always hungry and being tired because everyone goes to bed too late.

Summer is about managing your expectations and your reality. The things you want to do and the things you can actually fit in your schedule. It's about putting things on the calender to make sure they happen and being spontaneous at the same time. It's about making your days count, not letting them slip by. It's about being productive and making sure life doesn't swallow you in the process.

Summer is an interesting kind of hard.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Washington, DC on a Sunday to visit John and Shawna. A total bonus was getting to see Bobby, Rachel, Reagan and Rose. We hit up a Nationals game and sat in the nosebleeds (the very tip top row). It was great!

We did the quick walking tour of most of the monuments on Monday. I haven't seen those since our 8th grade trip to Washington, DC.

 

We had a great visit and definitely want to take the kids back soon.

Last week we had Big Kick Soccer Camp at South Ridge. It's our 3rd year in a row - best one yet. It was an incredible week.

Our long time friends, the McKissack's, stopped by for a visit on Saturday. Patti is one of my mom's longest friends ever. They are great supporters of our ministry. We see them once about every 5 years when they travel from out west. It was a great visit!

Since Big Kick took up our first entire week of Summer, we declared Monday our 1st official day of Summer. We hit up the pool with the Underdonks and then the lake with the Kozels.

We may have overdone it a bit. Ted got a little dehydrated and then motion sick when he climbed back in the boat with a huge headache. Oops!

So Summer begins. I'll leave you with this text I got from Ted today while I was at work. (Skip down to Today 10:25 AM). I won't tell you who was in the wrong here, but it definitely wasn't Ted.

Cheers to Summer 2015 - let's get this party started!

before the end of the school year

So before school was out . . .

Ted spent some time in the backyard jamming to his iPod.

Henry came for another visit. We got to play at the park, go swimming and hang with him while his parents went to a wedding.

We had a fundraiser for the new Young Life Camp being planned for West Virginia. Bob Huggins, WVU Basketball Coach, came to speak at the event. We're so close to being able to buy the property and build Young Life's newest premier camp overlooking the Gauley River. The goal is to finish up the $5 million fundraising campaign by the end of July. That will buy the property and build the basic infrastructure. We're so, so close.

We took a family hike to Ravens Rock at Coopers Rock. Everyone did surprisingly well on the trail. We're ready to take Uncle Jim on this trail.

West Virginia is so beautiful!

Sophie was leading the way on the way back and spotted this rattle snake crawling across the path. Thankfully she has eyes to see everything. If I had been leading the way I would've stepped right on it.

An apology note from Sophie. She's struggling these days. We're working on it.

She bought herself a brand new clipboard at a yard sale we did as a camp fundraiser.

She very much enjoyed making her daily checklist.

And then playing in the dirt at Ted's baseball game. All in a days work.

We've had a lot of cancelled baseball games the past few weeks. It's been kind of a bummer. Overall, it's been a good season for Ted's team. Ben is the assistant coach and we really like the head coach. Ted plays 3rd base and catcher - he's done a really well.

2014-2015 school year

My annual beginning and end of the school year pictures.

Ted - PreK

Ted - Kindergarten

Ted - 1st Grade | Sophie - PreK

Ted - 2nd Grade | Sophie - Kindergarten

 Ted - 3rd Grade | Sophie 1st

I'm just realizing Ted wore the same shirt at the end of 2nd grade and beginning and end of 3rd grade. He purposely wore it for both 3rd grade pics. The boy is a creature of habit.

the moore's & the coombs'

We've had two sets of leaders get married recently.

Cailey & David got hitched in April.

Love these two so much. We met David when he came to camp as a kid with Scott Berg in 2010. He made his way to WVU (and our hearts) that Fall.

David has been known to spend a lot of unannounced time in our garage and I've been known to reprimand him a time or two for various inappropriate comments. We've recently gotten to know Cailey. She's Sweet, kind and a real gem.  These two just moved to Pocohontas County (aka as the middle of no where WV) to invest in high school kids. We are so proud of them!

Tanner and Maggie got married Memorial Day Weekend. They had a beautiful wedding at Adventures on the Gorge.

Ted loves to listen to Tanner's rap music and we're thankful for the example that Tanner and Maggie set for so many. We met both of them when we moved to Morgantown. Maggie's family hosted MHS Young Life Club in their garage. And Tanner gave his testimony at the Bridgeport banquet that year. Both of them have been so influential on the people around them and it's been a real joy to be part of their lives.

We are honored to be part of both of these couples' lives. They both have played very significant parts in our lives and Ben has a special place in his heart for both of these men. 

Congratulations David & Cailey and Tanner & Maggie. Cheers to the beginning of wedding season.