Vacation Remainders

Following Aaron's fabulously enjoyable birthday, Friday I did a little work and Aaron and Sami did a little youth pastor work--Aaron had agreed to help "judge" the "talent show" at the high school. Sami will soon be a youth pastor in Tennessee, and Aaron has been her mentor over the years, so she loved meeting our kids and seeing his work. He also made her help clean the garage. Probably less enlightening. After dinner we went to the beach where the waves crash on the rocks. Gorgeous but cold with the wind.

Saturday morning Aaron again used Sami as his own personal intern, helping at the YL car wash, while I got Anna and all our stuff ready to head out SANDBOARDING. Our friend Famous Sandboarder Matt Walton just got back in town and stopped by the other day to say hi and got us all itching to try it out. More on this later, but let's just say it was awesome rad, dude. Or whatever the cool kids who actually know what they're doing say.

Sunday was another full day/work day for Aaron. We've had a wonderful woman serving as our fill-in pastor for two months, and even though we're mad at her for not staying longer (like forever), we thought it'd be nice to have brunch on her last Sunday. So half the church took over the place with the amazing buffet. Endless fruit and sugary carbs? Anna has a new favorite place. I rushed her home for a 45-minute detox nap before I had to wake her up for Baccalaureate at church. Aaron is always in charge of this--much to his chagrin--and this year he gave the little inspiring message too. He really did a great job and it's too bad that for some reason there weren't as many people there. Previously there's been more people every year, seems to me. I always tell him if he wants to get out of doing this thing, he's going to have to do a much worse job. Ya screwed yourself again, Wetzel.

Monday we had to take Sami back to the airport, and I arranged for us to go by our adoption agency for our third and final post-placement meeting with the social worker. I can't believe it--this means it's been almost a year since we came home from Ethiopia with Anna. It's been almost a year since a lot of things . . .

All that made for a really long day in the car, since Anna stubbornly kept herself awake the whole three hours home. I think we are all still feeling the aftereffects a bit today. The party's over.