Family Reunion

My early childhood was spent surrounded by aunts and cousins.  Then we moved to Wisconsin, and since then, the family hadn't gotten together.  I had gone 25 years without seeing my aunts and uncles, and had never met most of my cousins' spouses and children.  Until this Saturday, that is!  It was the perfect day for a reunion.

Thank You, God!

After weeks of work, the first day of VBS was a blur of activity.  Kairi was in charge of the slideshow this year, so she took most of the pictures you see here.  Today's Bible Point was that "God Made Us!"   The kids had a fabulous time recreating the days of creation in our Wild Bible Adventures station.  It's going to be a fun week!

Bye, Harry

Bittersweet.  We'd waited so long to see the last Harry Potter movie.  So many scenes were so good.  They got so very much right.  We laughed, we cried, we cheered - and so did the rest of the costumed and crazed crowd.  It was bad enough that it was ending, but unfortunately, it ended badly. Goodbye, Hogwarts.

America's Pastime

We got together for a picnic and pick-up baseball game with Barry, Tammy, Hannah, Faith and Juli.  Hannah plays softball at her mom's house and she couldn't wait to play with Nick - who couldn't wait to play with the new bat he got at Grandma's house.  With kids ages 4 - 14, it wasn't exactly regulation.  But who cares?

Dumbledore's Army

Kairi and Nick finished their Neville and Luna costumes today so that Kai could be Luna at a pre-premiere Potter party.  I realized today that they don't remember a time when there wasn't something Harry related to anticipate.  It's like a little part of their childhood going away. I'm sad!

Impromptu Camping

I was facing a long weekend without my kids, and I was feeling generally out of sorts from summer doldrums.  After dinner, Scott and I went down to Saucon Park to wander around and try to shake me out of the blues. As we sat with our feet in Saucon Creek, Scott mentioned how much he likes the outdoors. When he said we should go camping someday (after 17 years of refusing to do so) I jumped right on it and suggested we go home, make a reservation, buy a tent and go this weekend!

We were lucky enough to snag the last open spot at Lackawanna State Park's campground this weekend.  It was a walk-in tent site, which was fine by us.  We arrived, set up our tent, and headed out on the lake for some canoeing.  To our great surprise, we saw a bald eagle circling the lake.  Dinner was campfire stew and s'mores!

After a night full of thunderstorms came a day full of rain showers.  Scott and I had to sneak in the ranger's scavenger hunt, a trip to the pool, hiking, and another canoe trip between rain showers.  Worst, it rained just as we finally got our dinner fire started with very soggy wood!  Luckily, the fire survived the deluge.

After a morning kayak trip, we broke camp and headed back to Bethlehem to meet up with my sister's family for the fireworks.  We told them to be at the parking garage a bit too early, but it was worth the wait.  We filled our time with chatting, snacking and lighting sparklers. The girls loved the fireworks.  At one point, I looked across to the Allentown show, only to have Juli remonstrate, "Aunt Jenn! You missed a VERY PRETTY firework when you weren't looking!"