Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Camp NanaPapa 2011

(Craig writes) We had a great CNP in September with 7 of our 8 grandchildren able to attend the annual Camp NanaPapa. The theme this year was "The Swiss Family Robinson" with stories from the book, decorations with an island theme, food with strange names (snake eggs, frog eyes, live wiggly worms, dried ants and jungle juice - a.k.a. frozen grapes, garden peas, hotdog strips, raisins and lemonade/tea punch) as well as building a treehouse. The treehouse was actually more in between and around trees rather than actually being built up in one thanks to the engineering skills of Papa and his desire not to harm any live trees in the backyard. Tom and Ashlea also brought the bouncy house for us to use during camp week so the cousin campers had plenty to do outside. Each of the children got a chance to hammer some nails and put in some screws while building the treehouse but Addie seemed a bit more interested than the others in drilling holes and putting the wood together. She also wrote and directed a play, "The Red Headed Cousin" that all 8 grandchildren (with a guest appearance by Nadia) presented to Baba, Laura, Amy, Rita, Becky and me.

Becky is already making plans for next year and is considering making it a "Little House on the Prairie" theme complete with native american crafts, a visit by a real horse to ride around the yard, authentic food (gluten free of course)...you get the picture. The treehouse will probably be converted to a "prairie soddy" or suitable housing to afford as realistic imagining as possible as the children hear the "little House" stories read.

On another front, Becky and I were given gift certificates by our children for kayaking tours for our 40th wedding anniversary and we are looking forward to using them in the very near future!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Thanks for the memories...

(Craig writes) Our 40th wedding anniversary party was a blast. About 90 of our family and close friends were able to join in the fun with us. Seeing so many familiar smiling faces at one time brought back many memories of life events that span over our 40+ years together. Many conversations of "remember when we..." followed by laughter punctuated the evening. One of the major highlights for me was when our children shared a few words with us on their reflections of being parented and loved by us over the years. Wow, between Bec and God we ended up with a truly wonderful family! Thanks God and Becky for a wonderful life, and thanks for the meaningful memories that have made it a full one.

The next phase of our lives together continues and I am excited about what God will do with us as we continue our journey down "the road less traveled."

Saturday, September 10, 2011

40 Years Of Wedded Bliss! (mostly...)

(Craig writes) Today is the day of our 40th wedding anniversary party and to say we are excited would be an understatement! More like uber excited, stoked out excited, wildly excited - you get the picture. We recently had a photo book made and entitled it "From 2 to 16" based on the 2 of us starting out 40 years ago and how our family has grown to 16 today. When you think of family and building relationships the fact that we are all really a mosaic of who we choose to let into our lives becomes refreshingly clear. The statement "no man is an island" becomes more meaningful the older I get. We will have a plethora of folks celebrating with us tonight from many aspects and times of our lives. Like it or not, if you are reading this you have had some input into the couple you are partying with tonight (feel free to claim only the good parts as your addition to our makeup)! So to all of you who knew us, know us or will know us in the future, thanks for your addition to our lives. We wouldn't want it any other way!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

That was a fast year!

(Craig writes) - Well it is now 2011 and I didn't record anything here from 2010. Seems like good intentions don't always work out like you envision them. One of the many notable things that happened in 2010 was that Becky was able to complete her Doula Certification with D.O.N.A. and help bring several new babies into the world! She loves doing this and is really making an impact on the families she has helped/is helping. We will also be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary this year and decided to make it a year long celebration by doing special things together all year long. Since I had to be in Florida for a business meeting in January we started our year of celebration by spending a few extra days enjoying the warmth of Florida together. Becky even ran in the Disney World 5K and received a medal while we were there. This January has seemed colder than normal for us and we had a lot of snow and ice to chill things down even more. We both have mentioned that the older we get the better warm sunny Florida looks, but would probably settle for someplace along the Carolina's Coastline as that would be closer to our wonderful family! The LifeNet dream continues to unfold as Peace Community Church became the first new church to grow out of it. Seems like the housechurch momentum is picking up again...yeah! I wonder if I will do a better job at recording snippets of our lives in 2011?