Father's Day 2015

Dear ol' Dad opening his card and drawings from the boys!  Loved it and I loved the sense of humor and underlying love that their drawings depicted.

Grandpa getting much of the same in his card from the boys.

The little Chinaman and his cone-headed friend Juno.  He is one of the reasona that I'm wickedly excited to be a daddy.

The other reason is Mr. Intense, Robby, or clappy hands.  His smile is light unto the day!  His reluctance to work and dragging of the feet when he does work has a bit of a dimming effect on that same light, but it's still bright!

Riverside 2015 - The Retrieval

After 5 days of "Roblessness", we got to go retrieve the lad on Friday afternoon.   I look forward to this more than just about anything.  And also for two reasons. 

1.) I get the eldest back after missing him profusely.

2.) The worship here is awesome and is my second favorite ever!  (first is reserved for Teen Challenge!)  Those two services are the only two that have moved me to tears without the mention of loved ones who have died, or something of that sort.

This year was equally as good even though we're wily, seasoned veterans in year two of having a kiddo in camp. 

The opening speaker and a decent wider view of the worship center.

The boy marching in with his camp mates.  He didn't really want to come home...  which is sort of the point!

The worship band getting ready to play.

The campers getting down with the worship band!  Can you find Robby?  You can see his right eyeball and forehead in the background.

This is shot number 1 of the basement in the mess hall.  Lots of games to play.

Another shot of the basement just left from the one above.

This is looking out of the doors from the basement towards the worship center (on the left).  Somewhere off behind that building on the right, there's the swimming pool (old) and the new one they're building for next year.

Calebbers Track Camp

Track Camp concluded tonight with a meet and ice cream bars!  

So the boy appears to have some natural talent for running. And turns out he's pretty fast too!  He ran the 100 meter and came in second.  He did a 60 yard whatever-you-call-a-hurdle-race twice, once coming in first and once coming in second.  He did the relay and also the long jump.

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's Master McCheese doing the long jump!  His distance and scores aren't posted yet but the should be soon.

This is from the meet tonight.  I believe this was the 100 meter and he blasted thru this and got second place.

This is from practice on day one where they're learning how to line up in the blocks.

And a few videos in the event that they may work.   I have more but they won't upload due to their size.

 

One's at Bible Camp, One's In Jail...

You think you're razn'em right and send the oldest off to Bible camp, while the younger, non-qualifying for Bible Camp stays behind. So the first day of staying behind includes a day out on the town with some friends from Lutheran Church of the Cross (LCC) in Altoona Iowa.  

The results?

The boy get thrown into the poke!!!  

Calebber in the Pleasant Hill jail.   Some of our friends from church, work there and that was part of Caleb's big day out on the town.  They also went to the Capital building, the Historical building, Over the Top (ice cream) and McDonalds for lunch.  I personally haven't heard all of the details yet as I got home from work while he was at swimming lessons and he's now at the neighbors house playing.

I included this photo from last week when Momma took the critters to the zoo. Why?  Cause I'm missing the older, sometimes louder, larger American boy!

Riverside 2015 - The Dropoff

So the boy is at camp again this year. Last year was in August, this year he's one of the early weeks. Not only that, but this year he's in Adventure Camp. He's goes horseback riding, gets to do a "creek stomp", as well as sleeping in a more remote "tent" instead of the hardwood cabins of last year.

He was nervous as CRAP at various times this morning... basically whenever he thought about it.  It would be unfair though to mention nervousness without mentioning a similar level of excitement. He was excited!

So here we are in the camp store after getting checked in.  Mom's giving him a little tour/speech as he didn't understand that he had a camp "credit" last year.  We want him to have a better understanding this year (and years future) so he can have better camp experiences as he grows.

Nervous boy,  right there.  That's the mess hall and camp store up behind him. 

This is the platform tent in which he'll spend the next 6 nights.  The dude in the purple shirt and hat is Ryan, who was one of Robby's camp conselors last year, much to his delight!

That's the building where the lad will hopefully shower 3 times over the next 6 days.  It's air conditions and has a bit of a storm shelter if such a storm should catch the camp by surprise.

This is a less nervous boy in the shower/storm shelter building.

Momma and Calebber crossing the South Skunk river back to the main camp after seeing where Robby is camping.

After we said our goodbyes, we took several steps and turned to wave one last time and snap a photo.  The next time I turned around, he was at one of those game tables you can see people play at over his right shoulder.

Overall, I felt much better dropping him off this year knowing that 6 evenings from now he'll be begging me NOT to take him home.

Even so, keep him in your prayers.  I love the boy...

Random Hap'nins From the Hill, June 2015 Edition

Schools out and we haven't been doing too much, although during the week it never feels that way!  Oh sure, there's always something going on somewhere and I usually do my best to avoid most of it.  :-)

But here's a few odds n' ends of what keeps us busy.

Caleb started swimming lessons last week.  Guess who gets to go in the pool at the same time?  Yep.  Aquaman Robby.  Calebs swim instructor is one of Robby's swim coaches.  I will NEVER forget the first two times we put that boy in water while we were still in China.  I got beat up!!!

And speaking of things he would NEVER have done 2 years ago...  There are many times now where I'll find him and Juno snuggling on the couch or playing video games.  Good to see.

Robby has been wanting to ride his bike more this years as we only made it out once last year (I know, I know...)  So one night I took he and the Chinaman up to their school to ride in the parking lot.  Caleb is not riding because every time he does, he ends up wounded and does not care for that!  He will run and chase Robby around the parking lot though, so there's still some exercise happening.

After bike riding, we took a short trip down to the river to see the sights.  The plan was to do some hiking, but as you can sort of see from the varmints, the skeeters were thick as thieves and it was miserable!

A "few" of the skeeter bites the boy got.  He's like his momma too...  meaning they drive him absolutely bonkers with the itching.  Calebber and I can just leave them alone and they're gone in about 24 hours.

And back home we see our nice serene picture of our creek thru the front yard...

Which is infested with these critters and they're reeking havoc in the yard!!

That's about all...  as I say, nothing too exciting but it is what it is.

Robby has a birthday party at the aquatic center today and then he's ushering in worship tonight as part of the ending of VBS week with our church.

Ribs Without Bibs

Me thinks the boys are fans of pork ribs! 

Probably should become fans of bathing too if they keep eating like this!!!

4 Mile Olympics

It's that time of the year again...  Well actually, it's well past that time of the year again because I forgot about these photos and was reminded recently when dumping stuff off of the cameras memory card.

Full disclosure on my captions for the pictures below.  I barely know one race from another so I will likely be chastised by the good woman after this is posted...  :-)

Here's the brood of vipers as they're being paraded by class down the track in front of us silly whooping parents.

This is Caleb and the other first grade boys doing the crab walk race.  Caleb is under the black arrow and early on was in second place.

And then his unzipped coat started sliding down his arms, and tripping him.  He ended up about 12 - 15th somewhere.  And he didn't really care.

There's Larger American Boy in the 40 yard dash as he's going by in front of us.

Those teachers in the upper right are the finish line.  Robby ended up winning the race by his nose.  We thought the other kid beat him, but as you can see, we didn't have the best angle.

That's Small Chinese Boy lining up for his 80 yard dash.

And that's him in the lead about the halfway point.  As you can see, he keeps watching his opponent as opposed to just running as fast as he can.  I sort of wondered if he didn't fully understand what he was supposed to be doing or the point of it all.  Cause he is dang fast and has a good stride.  I think he could have won by 3 or more yards if he were going all out.  Maybe, maybe not...

And there he is at the finish line, where he got the second place ribbon. 

He'll have an opportunity to learn a little more about running and the point of it as he is signed up to go to a track n' field camp next week while Robby is at Riverside Bible Camp.

No matter, I was proud of both boys performances at the olympics.  Robby also ran another race and didn't fare as well, but he gave it his all!