Birthdays and Babysitters

Last night Kiley and I went out with my folks, grandma and my sister to celebrate my dad's birthday. As is our tradition, we went to Red Lobster.

I love my dad, and it was fun to honor him and hang out with the family. He's been hard to buy presents for though for years. I'm still trying to figure out what to buy him...

While we were out to eat, the boys were at home with some friends of ours. A younger couple who have become good friends recently have been asking for some time to come over and babysit the boys for an evening. They have no children of their own...yet...and wanted to come over and "practice" with ours.

When we got home, they were all still up and playing Wii. They had pizza, ice cream, cartoons and video games all evening. Sounds like they might have had more fun that we did... :-)

Psalm 20

Early in the morning this week, the Holy Spirit led me to Psalm 20 as a promise for me and for my family. As I read it again later this week, the first sentence captured me:

"May the Lord answer you when you are in distress, may the name of the God of Jacob protect you."

This led me to go back to some of my old school personal study and remind myself of some of the names of God in Scripture:

• Jehovah-Jireh (the Lord will provide)
• Jehovah-Nissi (the Lord my banner)
• Jehovah-Shalom (the Lord send peace)
• Jehovah-Shammah (The Lord is there)
• Jehovah-Tsidkenu (The Lord our righteousness)

The name that Jacob refers to in Genesis is El-Shaddai which means "all-sufficient" One.

MLK Weekend Trip

We surprised the boys with a last minute trip this last weekend. Kiley and I packed the van and had it ready to go when we got home from Sunday celebrations. They knew something was up, but didn't know what, when or where.

We drove to Reno, where a friend had found a deal on a hotel room at Circus Circus. Once there, we headed to the Circus Midway and played the evening away. There were circus acts to watch and loads of carnival games. The deal included some 2 for 1 tickets for the games, so we set about to see what we could win.

One of our favorite games was "the fishing game." Basically, they have a bunch of metal discs that float on a current in a circle. We were given a "fishing pole" which had a magnet on the end. If you snagged a yellow disk, you received a small prize (which anyone could do), but if you snagged a red disk all by itself (which is much more difficult) you received a bigger prize. This was one of my dad's favorite games at the county fair growing up and he had it dialed in. He had taught me well...we walked away with two armloads full of stuffed animals.

Once Ian went to bed, Brendon and I headed down for another round and won another several prizes. He had his heart set on a guitar that was won by knocking down 3 blocks with a bean bag...problem is, neither of us could hit the blocks! So much for that...

The next morning, we played a few more games and ate brunch at the buffet. It was fun to watch the contrast in the boys at the buffet. Brendon comes back with breads and goodies, but Ian comes back with fruit and oatmeal. :-)

We stopped in at Cabela's to look at the stuffed animals on the way back and then met some friends near Boreal where we found some very hard packed, but deep snow. We played there for several hours. Ian headed right for the top and sledded down over and over and over until finally he hit his head on my kneecap so hard that he cried for quite a while. After that he was done, but we were a few minutes from leaving anyway. Brendon and his friend played with snow ball makers and did their best to start a war with the parents. I don't think they expected their mom's to be quite as good as they were at taking them out with snow balls. :-)

When we got back in the van after stopping for a quick dinner at KFC, the boys pronounced, "This was the best day ever!" That always makes you feel good as a parent.