Youth Day Camp 2024

For the past few years on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the boys have attended a day camp with their youth group.  They love this event!  

They are preassigned to teams and each team is given a color.  They have to wear their color to the event.  Once there, each team comes up with a name and banner, and they compete against each other in games.  This year Ben was on the green team, and Cruz was on the blue team. 

In addition to the competitions, they have worship, Bible study, and lunch together.  

Here are some photos from Day Camp 2024-

 

group picture

 

worship

 

Bible study

They do one in the morning and one after lunch.

 

 

Ben's green team making their banner.

 

Cruz's blue team making their banner.

 

Cruz's team

 

Ben's team

 

 

competition time!

 

 

 

 

 

Cruz's blue team was the overall winner.  That made him very proud! 

 

We are so thankful for a wonderful youth group that the boys get to attend.  In addition to growing in the Lord, they have made some wonderful friendships.  Wednesday nights are the highlight of their week.

Flag Football Finale Spring 2024

This Spring Cruz had the opportunity to play flag football.  He loved it!!!  It ended with a finale game.  I was in the States attending my brother's funeral and was sad to miss it.  Thankfully, David took several photos for me.

 

Dressed in his uniform for the game.

 

 

A highlight of the night was a special guest they had in attendance.  Jeff Hartings is a Super Bowl Champion, 2X Pro Bowler, and first round draft pick. He started his NFL football career playing for the Detroit Lions. He won a Super Bowl as a Pittsburgh Steeler. Cruz was very excited about getting to meet him!

 

Cruz with Jeff

 

He spent some time sharing with them.

 

He also did a little coaching and teaching.

 

 

 

 

Here's a video highlight of the night.

 

He is already looking forward to another season in the fall!

Sports in the Park

Our Summer Sojourner students spent an afternoon in a local park doing sports activities with a group of kids.  I invited several that I knew who lived in the area.  Many of them would be attending Camp Guamiski the following week.  Our students were going to be serving there as counselors and it gave the kids an opportunity to get to know them early. I know some were going to be first time campers and were a little nervous.  This day helped put them at ease and made them look forward to camp a little more.

 

our students ready to play ball

 

four square is a favorite around here

 

It was a very fun afternoon.  I think everyone enjoyed it, including the parents who hung out together while the kids played.

The Weekend

Saturday had us up and going early. We had a 10:00 birthday party to attend in Jackson.   David and Ben ended up staying at his grandmother's house while Cruz and I went to the party.   It was for his friend Sara Madalin who is turning 6.  She had a really cute Scientist themed party.  Her mom is pretty creative so I knew the party would be fun. 

This was the sign on the door when you arrived.

Each child was given a lab coat, name badge, and goggles when they arrived.  They then went around to different tables filled with activities for them to do.  Here is Cruz looking at slides on the microscope. 

Here he is making snow.  That was pretty cool.

and they also made gak by mixing glue, water, food coloring, and borax.

Here's Reagan adding Mentos to Diet Coke.  The kids loved watching it explode!

Cruz and the birthday girl- Sara Madalin

We left the party with just enough time to pick up David, change Cruz's clothes, and get him to his tee ball game.  It was a make-up game from the previous week that got rained out.  Ben was napping so we left him at Maw Maw' house.

our family (minus Ben) at Cruz's game

This one makes me laugh.  It's like they realized "oh yeah, the ball just rolled by.  Maybe we should go get it". ha

chasing the ball

After the game we spent the rest of the afternoon with Maw Maw, Memaw, and Larsen.  We made a visit to the Dairy Freeze for ice cream and then drove over to Lake Chautauqua to let the kids play.  While there we took a stroll through the Treetop Trails.  I always enjoy that. 

Ben and David on the pier at Lake Chautauqua

This is poor David by the time our hike ended.  His arms were full.

Sunday morning we attend worship at Southway Baptist Church in Brookhaven.  It was fun to just slip in and be a part of the congregation.  I had us take a few family pics before we left home that morning to remember our last Sunday in Brookhaven. 

We are going to miss this mission home, this area, and this Baptist Association.  All of which have been a great blessing to our family!

Ben just cracks me up in this picture.  Boy is he starting to show some spunk!

Cruz picked to eat lunch at Ward's because he wanted "that red drink".  He loves the pink lemonade there and asks to go there often.  As I mentioned in a previous post we love the steak sandwiches there so we thought it was a good choice too.  We ate outside and enjoyed the sunshine.  

Here is Ben taking his Sunday afternoon nap.  Doesn't he look sweet. 

Later that afternoon I attended a baby shower for my cousin.  She is having her first child, a baby boy, in July.   She had a really cute shower and got a lot of good stuff.

me and Jennifer

I loved the food display!

The rest of the day was spent packing and getting ready to move.  We were up close to midnight.  It is unreal how much stuff we have accumulated in the last few months!  Monday was our moving day so I'll fill you in on how that went next.