Aubrey's a Lifeguard

First day on the job! She didn’t get to save anyone or even get to blow her whistle in her first six hours of work. Pretty great first job—time to read on her “off” minutes, and her friends and cousin are her co-workers!

Biker Gang Reunion

Joel and his buddies came back from CIY camp motivated to spend less time on technology (phones and gaming) and more time praying, being out in nature, and spending more time with people and encouraging others. It's a message so important, relevant, and needed for this generation, and it was great to hear the kids excited about the challenge. This last week Joel and a couple friends were out taking a walk without their phones, as part of the challenge, and they happened upon a whole box of gaming consoles and accessories with a "free" sign on it. The guy out front told them to "take it all." He just wanted it out of his house. So, these guys who had sworn off technology and video games for a month stumbled onto a treasure trove of games and snatched it up. They each took different pieces that they wanted to keep, and then they took the rest to a local gaming resale shop. They came away with $168! And what did they decide to do with the money? They used it for a day of fun on Hayden's birthday, which was the day after their find. They texted all their buddies and a bunch of them dusted off their old bikes, reinflated the tires, and biked around like it was the summer of 2020 or 2021. They ate blackberries along the side of the road, raided the raspberries and blueberries at G&G Arnold's house, visited some of their old haunts, biked to the taco truck for lunch, and then later bought pizza and hung out together at Hayden's house. More guys joined in the fun as the day went on, but this was the gang that first gathered that morning. It warmed our hearts to see them out on their bikes having fun once again, like the kids they once were, our man-children. :-)

Junior Olympics '24

Driving home from the CA Bay Area, where we’ve spent the last five days with Grant at the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics with his Blue Crush club team. They went 4 and 4, which exceeded our expectations, as this was his team’s first JO tournament, and we expected to get trounced in most of the games. They did so well! They learned a ton and improved so much from day one to day four. They won a close game in a shootout, and they won their last game 15-11, after being down by four goals. Grant had a very cool backhand goal and three others in that game. I screamed and cheered so much, my voice was hoarse afterwards.

There was one rough game in the middle that wasn’t as fun, but we expected some of that. Lots of learning opportunities in those four days, and their coach did such a great job teaching and coaching them through it. The boys soaked it all in like sponges.

Grant is becoming a good water polo player! It was a joy to watch him play the sport he loves and have success with his team. Greg and I enjoyed getting to know the other families and enjoyed the time with old friends, too. Both teams—14u and 18u—stayed at the same hotel and cheered each other on when it worked with the game schedules—great community.

It was weird having just one kid with us. Felt so easy! I kept thinking we were forgetting someone. I’m thankful we were able to be there with Grant and experience it all with him. Such a fun time! We very likely have many more JO’s in our future.

Our hotel was only 20 minutes from where Jane and her family live in Livermore. The day we arrived, we were able to meet up with them for ice cream at Meadowlark Dairy and visited in a park across the street while we enjoyed our soft serve. It was great to see them and so kind of them to drive over for us.