Receiving Jesus

Our oldest son, William, made his First Communion at the beginning of the summer. What an exciting day for him and for all of us. William has made us proud in so many ways, and now here he is arriving at this big milestone, and receiving Jesus.

We are so proud of you, William, and we pray that you use the graces from the sacraments to grow in the love of God.

One Man's Junk is Another Kid's Treasure

The Easter Bunny left a "family gift" this year -- a hand-held GPS unit, perfect for family geocaching. Due to busy schedules and the usual spring insanity around here, it took us until June to break out the manual, figure out the unit, and look up some local geocaches. Using Geocaching.org, we have found a plethora of geocache locations near home.

A new weekend hobby, geocaching prompts our kids to look through their "treasure boxes" for junk treasure. This is great! What's not so great is the junk treasure that makes it's way into our home in it's place.

Nevertheless, the hunt is great fun. It's a good family diversion on a sunny Sunday, and the kids have learned some basic orienteering (albeit with high tech instruments) along the way.

Future family vacations will certainly include the GPS. Wisconsin treasure is one thing, but Georgia treasure is quite another.

Gymnastics Hiatus

Young Andrew is taking a hiatus from gymnastics as his finger heals post-surgery. This is certainly not his idea. And he has clearly verbalized his dismay at the forced hiatus. The gymnastics break is helping us with that crazy summer schedule, however... ;)