Good-bye to Summer

Summer is almost over, but we have some sweet memories to savor.  In July we went to Massachusetts for a family wedding.  Ginger’s cousins Scott & Beth Ross put on an amazing wedding bash for their eldest daughter Dana.  It was beautiful, and the highlight for me (besides Dana’s dancing) was seeing family I hadn’t seen in many years. It was a rare treat to see Dad with his brother J.P. and sister Nancy.  We had a family reunion on Sunday after the wedding at Carolyn’s house with just immediate family.  It was the first time we’d all been together in four years, so that was a rare treat as well.

For the month of August we had a 14-year old French girl, Jade, stay with us.  She is from Nice.  We practiced our French, and helped her with English.  The girls and she rode bikes, roller-bladed, played games, watched movies, and swam a lot.  We showed her around Indianapolis, and took her to Chicago for a day.  It was fun to have her, and we are glad to now have a friendship with her and her parents.  We hope to stay in touch with them for many years.

So it’s good-bye to summer, and welcome fall – my favorite time of year.

Summer Fun

Summer is definitely in full swing.  The girls are on the Garfield Park swim team again.  We’ve had visits from our missionaries – the Stilwells in Costa Rica, and the Petersens in Scotland.  That has been a real treat for all of us to get to spend time with dear friends. 

We had our annual Fourth of July party, despite a huge construction project on our street which has prohibited parking there.  On the 4th, we had a huge hole in front of our house and we had to keep the little ones from going too close to it!  They are replacing the sewer pipes, which we hope will be an improvement of some kind.

Next week we go to Massachusetts for a family reunion and wedding.  We are excited to drive through Buffalo and visit some old friends there.  And Cape Cod is beautiful in the summer, so we are looking forward to seeing family and enjoying the ocean.

Visitors

A week ago Fadel, the Saudi student that has been living with us since October, moved out.  We really enjoyed having him in our home.  He treated us all to dinner at a GREAT Egyptian restaurant in Indianapolis, called Cairo Cafe.  I highly recommend it!

After he left, we had Eliza’s birthday sleepover with a few friends on Tuesday.  On Wednesday a guy named Josh Olson came to stay with us from Escondido, CA.  He’s from Calvary Chapel in Escondido, and came to do a discipleship training course with people from our church and a few other Horizons around Indy.  It is a great course, put together by a man from India.  We are excited to implement it at church.  It’s been fun getting to know Josh as well.  We taught him “Ticket to Ride” (the train game), and “Blockus”.

Tomorrow night my parents come from Massachusetts to visit for a week.  My mom’s sister (named Aunt Sis) from Milwaukee is coming on Tuesday and will stay til Friday.  It will be a special treat to have the three of them in our home.  So that’s what’s going on around here!