Fun in the sun in July

Yesterday my cousin Dan and his wife Rachel and their son came to visit from Connecticut for the weekend. After they got here we drove to Naples, NY and spent the afternoon hiking Grimes Glen. The trail follows the river and sometimes the trail is right through the river. There are 2 waterfalls, one halfway along that trickles over the side for 60 feet, and another about 63 feet tall that falls into a 3-4 foot deep pool of water. The weather was perfect and the kids had so much fun. I was amazed by how adventurous our boys are – especially Isaac. That kid has no fear as he ran through the river and played in the water. Brax, our yellow lab, came along with us and did great. This was his first real experience with playing in water. He didn’t really like walking through the river at first, but once we got to the pool and started throwing his tennis balls, he was jumping in and out and loving it. We’ll post a video showing that soon.

Last night we made home-made pizzas. We were able to use tomatoes and basil from our garden on the pizzas and then had a salad with our zucchini – fresh vegetables are so good.

After we got the kids in bed, we played some games – Ticket to Ride, Europe; and Perpetual Commotion. Thanks so much to Dan and Rachel for coming to visit; we had so much fun and wish we could have spent more time together.

Friday night we had a movie night with the kids. There was a family movie on TV that was a little cheesy, but the boys enjoyed it. I was quite tired and fell asleep towards the end. We got the boys in bed and were just about to go to bed ourselves, when we got a call from Tyce and Faith Kearl, our good friends from Milwaukee. They were inviting us to play games over the internet along with Peter Hedgecock, another good friend who now lives in Portland. We were up quite late having such a good time catching up on each others’ lives while playing. Thanks for inviting us and we can’t wait to do it again soon.

Thursday night I volunteered to help with security for the Hill Cumorah pageant. This is a large pageant put on by our church every year in Palmyra, New York. There are over 700 volunteers performing. It is done on a hill outside of Palmyra, and the area can seat 9,000 people. It is full of dialogue, music, dance, and special effects with water, fire, etc. We took the family to see it last weekend and they loved it. So this night I was there from 6pm-12am. I was given a radio and a location to watch to make sure nobody came into that area that shouldn’t be there. I was able to meet several of the cast and watch the show from halfway up the hill, which was cool. It would be fun some day to be a part of it with our children.

The boys are doing a summer reading program. They have to read for 15 minutes a day (or be read to) and then they can mark off their paper. Once they have their paper filled, they can return it to the library for a prize. It’s fun to see them get up in the morning and start to read. It is really helping Kolby with his reading skills, but they are all doing great.

Eli just finished his first piano book the week, level A, and so I started teaching him level B. He is doing great.

Last Sunday at church we introduced a revised program for the young men ages 12-18. It is called Duty to God. It is a program where they can complete different activities, focusing on learning from the scriptures, learning their duties as a young man, and learning standards that they can live by. Then they can come up with activities focused on those subjects, with a chance to report back to their family or youth group. The purpose is to help them establish good habits now that will apply to lifelong learning. I’m excited to work with the boys on this program.

Sunday night we had 5 people stay overnight. They were part of a singing group from Utah. On of their members is the daughter of someone in our church. Plans fell through for lodging and so they were looking for a place to stay their last night here. They left us a CD with some of their music and a book called, “The Golden Pathway.” We read it together for family home evening on Monday. It talks about kids who are invited to the kingdom of light. All they have to do is keep on their armor and their shield and sword with them at all times as they go along this golden pathway. They are met by many temptations and trials along the way, with some getting lost. Those that are obedient to the rules make it to the end and are happy. It had a lot of good lessons for us to talk about with the boys, including choosing the right and consequences from making bad choices. They really enjoyed it.