Our Family

A milestone has been reached...today was Elliot's first day of kindergarten.

Today we joined some friends at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. It's definitely an interesting crowd that you meet at a renaissance festival. It had been raining most of the day, so we also met quite a bit of mud. Why the the Ren. Fest.? Well the boys are all about knights and battles, they both recently filled up their good behavior charts so this made a good reward, and we were celebrating the rite of passage of Elliot starting kindergarten next Wednesday. The jousting was the most anticipated attraction. The kids ended up being most interested in the various games and the cheap plastic golden coins that you got as a reward for the games you paid to play.

Here is a bit of jousting footage:

My (Lisa's) great-uncle Bud passed away on August 11th. He was 85 years old. He died from what seems to have been a heart attack that caused him to take a severe fall in a parking lot. The time that lapsed between the attack and when paramedics were able to revive him was so great that it led to brain damage. He never woke up. Uncle Bud knew Jesus as his Savior so we are very happy for him that he has joined his beloved wife, my great-aunt Vera, in peace with their Creator. Though never having any children, Vera and Bud truly did have a special marriage. At Bud's house, my mother found an large envelope of letters and love notes that Aunt Vera would leave around the house for Bud. Some of the simply cute ones say things like, "I love you dear, Thanks for taking me to dinner last night" and "Honey I love you....please take down the meat from the freezer." They had been married for 48 years when Aunt Vera died unexpectedly from a complication after a heart procedure in 1989. Before the heart procedure she gave Bud a letter in a sealed envelope and told him only to open it if she died. Inside she had written her wishes for her funeral arrangements and ended the note with "Thankyou for the wonderful 48 years, I'll be waiting for you in heaven". When she died, I can remember my uncle saying "I never ever thought I'd be the one left alone" since he had been the one with all the health problems. So now I smile to think about my aunt saying to him "What took you so long!"

Last Friday Lisa and the boys went swimming at a local lake with the neighbors' grand kids (visiting from VA), and then Friday night they all camped out in the back yard and roasted marshmallows.

We left Sylva in the rain on Saturday (July 29). Here are a few photos from the Timberidge Deck on a nicer day...