Great Weekend

On Friday Sarah had a doctors appointment, the first of the weekly appointments that come at the end of the pregnancy. Sarah was 36 weeks and 5 days pregnant, and we knew we should ask the for the doctor's advice about traveling, especially since we were planning on driving two hours to East Texas for the CDR 50th Reunion. Here's how it went.

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Sarah: Is it okay if we travel at this point?

Doctor: How far away?

Sarah: 2 hours to East Texas.

Doctor: If it were me, I wouldn't do it. There are too many things that can happen.

Sarah: OK. (Doctor leaves the room.)

Sarah: She didn't say we couldn't!

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So we ignored the doctor's advice, and took off to East Texas on Friday as soon as school was out. We got to eat dinner with my parents that night, and then went to Sarah's parent's house for the two nights we were there. While we were at Sarah's parents, Sarah's good friend (and my good friend also) Terrilee showed up. She stayed the night there with us and then went out to Camp on Saturday with us.

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A large number of you who are reading this will agree with this statement: Saturday was a great day. I realize some of you are not part of the Deer Run experience, so I will explain to you the greatness that you missed. Camp Deer Run has been around for 50 years now, and we had a wonderful gathering to celebrate all of the history of camp, celebrate the success of camp, and to catch up with old friends. We took pictures based on when we camped or worked, we listened to stories from people representing 5 decades of camp, and we spent time worshipping God who has worked in such a wonderful way at camp. It was just a good time. In case you don't believe me, we took some pictures to prove what a wonderful time it was.

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There were lots and lots of babies and lots of babies in bellies. In order from left to right by due dates: Sarah, Katie, Mary, Kendra, Allison, Rachel, and Jodi.

Here is a picture of Sarah and Katie and future cousins.
Here's a picture of Terrilee being a little bit scary towards my child. I'm not real sure that I want Terrilee to hang around my son after seeing this picture.
Here's a picture of me and one of my best friend's for the past 25 years, Caleb Panter. I hadn't seen Caleb in well over a year, so it was really good to spend some time with him. In case you didn't know, Caleb's wife Addi is a TV star. On Sunday after church we got to go to Caleb's parent's new house, which is high quality. On a side note, I have no idea what is going on with my shirt on this one.
In 1992, two young men from different parts of Texas came to stay at Camp Deer Run for the first time. These two young men were Ty Ford, and at the time, Russell Smith. We were eleven years old, Nashamies, and staying in Men's 3. We both came with our own group of friends, so we didn't hang out together a whole lot. At the end of that session, the group gathered together to take our group picture, and Ty and I both ended up on the front row, with two guys standing in between us. Our group leader Tree was kneeling in the very front. It was your typical group picture. Eight years later, those two young men, Ty and now Sparky, became roommates in college, and took this picture that we were both in, and zoomed in, blew it up, and hung it in our apartment. It was one of our great treasures. In fact, I'm willing to bet no other apartment or dorm room had a picture of the roommates together when they were eleven. For years and years we dreamed of recreating this picture, only needing to get the two of us at camp at the same time as Tree. This dream came true on Saturday, and we were finally able to get our picture taken with our first group leader. I wish I could post the original picture, but Ty is the owner of said picture after I was defeated in a tough game of chess. Here is the present day picture.
This is a picture of my favorite baby Braden. Braden said he was willing to give that title up in a few weeks.
A picture of me and Sarah and the Camp Deer Run sign.
Finally, here is 37 week pregnant Sarah. I think she want's Sparky Jr. to get here.
We celebrated our Memorial Day by going and looking at houses. That's right, we are in the market for buying a house. I feel very grown-up to be doing this. We aren't sure if this is the best time to be buying a house for us, but we are going to look and see what our best options are. The most exciting news for us to come about the past few weeks is that Sarah will be able to stay home next year. This was very much an answered prayer. We didn't think she would be able to do this, but God came through big-time. Sarah is very, very excited, and I am so happy that she can spend this important time home with our son.