Canyon Life

Junes almost over. Schools out, summers on, the schedule is about to get crazy. Next week we start summer sports camps through our church. I oversee, and my kids assist the counselors, except Matt. He's still young enough to be a camper. First up is baseball camp. I love sports camps. There's nothing like running around with a hundred or so kids and playing fun games, sweating up a storm, and then finding creative ways to spray them with water so they don't overheat. 

Fathers day, at the beach. Football in the waves with dad. Do you know that my husband is the best dad in the world? No? Well now you know.

Fathers day weekend, Friday night. We went down to Doheny to fish and do some s'mores. James caught his very first fish. It was a barred surf perch. He was pretty stoked.

Brett's getting that fishing bug back as well. Lake fishing never seemed to be too productive, but ocean fishing. Oh dear. You just never know what you are going to catch. This night included two lobster.

Ty and James.Knott's Berry Farm, choo choo train. Staring contest.

Stagecoach ride, Knott's. The boys look so excited. Brett took an impromptu day off this week, and we went to ride some coasters for a bit. I wonder if we'll ever grow out of loving scary rides? I hope not.

 Practicing a skit for Camp Compass in Amman, Jordan. Only two more meetings to practice, then we leave. The final details are getting worked out, and I am getting nervous. Mostly because I have never been on a trip overseas, and I've never been away from my family for this long. I know it'll be fine, my moms coming out to help Brett, my kids are old enough to be self sufficient anyway. And of course Brett is fine on his own, but I'll miss them. I got my international phone stuff all handled tonight, Skype is set up, and my list for packing is done. Brett is loading my iPad up with some movies and my kindle will have a few books. I wonder if I'll be able to sleep on a flight? I'm going to bring benedryl just in case. That stuff knocks me out.

Oh yes. Can't forget about more adventures in hospitals with my youngest. This kid. I tell ya. He woke up with a mystery illness two weeks ago. All broken out in a rash, eyes swollen shut, face swelled up. It was BAD to look at. Of course Matt didn't even complain, said it didn't bother him. Took him in to the doctor, she said poison oak, but wasn't positive. Uh. Ok? Poison oak on a kid who hates tromping through nature? Well, it got much worse. So we went back. Another doctor looked, and was again unsure. She sent us to the ER, where he was hooked up faster than you can say ouch to an IV. Blood work done in record time, admitted to a room, where another doctor walked in, looked at Matt, and said, "chicken pox". Excuse me? But he's had the vaccine! It doesn't look like chicken pox! The doctor said this was a nicely mutated version, happens when you have the vaccine and get the virus anyways. Wow. They gave him some meds for comfort and Matt missed his last week of fourth grade. He wasn't sad about it, he got honor roll and his class sent a big get well card. Matt was happy to be quarantined with some video games. He's such an easy going kid.

Day four of crazy chicken pox. I won't post a picture of what day five and six looked like. It totally amazes me how good he looks now, just some marks and a few healing spots. Crazy how the human body heals.

Chasing chickens and roosters at Knott's.

Last week, friends camping at Doheny invited us down to fish. They caught two bat rays. Like I said, you just never know what you are going to pull out of the ocean. They also got a shovel nosed guitar fish.

Brett's first ocean catch, a yellow finned croaker.

Knotts. Matt went on his first looping coaster. He's hooked.

These new tiny baby kittens like to sleep on your face. Mostly Brett's. 

James got baptized. He went up and shared his testimony in front of hundreds of people. James gave his life to Christ almost two years ago, but he waited to get baptized, and I'm glad he did. I thought I was a Christian when I was his age, and I sure was not. I wasn't regenerate until my later twenties. James' has really shown a changed life. If you don't know what baptism is, Jesus commanded His followers to get baptized after you become a Christian as a public acknowledgement of your commitment to Christ. It doesn't save you, it's an act of obedience. It symbolizes the washing away of our sins with the blood of Christ. I always wonder, if I read about Christianity, not knowing anything about it, and stumbled across an explanation of baptism, what would I think of this practice? I'd probably think it was weird. It's so funny, once you read the bible, in context, with all the history behind each book, the politics, the way society worked at the time, it sure is not what I thought it was. Baptism makes sense in the context of Christianity. Have you ever read the bible? There's a story about a talking donkey in it. No joke. There's a whole book about sex. It's a depressing account of the human race, how gross we are, how evil we are. And the people back then, thousands of years ago, are no different than today. Self centered, self serving, manipulative, gossiping, lying, cheating thieves. All of them. Just like us today. There is no hope for the human race, that's why Jesus came. To save us, because we can't save ourselves.