We returned a few days ago from a nice camping trip to Clifty Falls State Park! We spent the day Saturday getting everything ready (including a new foam mattress topper for Beth and me, since her back has been so sore lately. Better more recently though. We left last Sunday, again taking the van as well as the truck to pull the camper. It just makes it so much more pleasant to go around town and on day trips in the van instead of the truck. We got there in the early afternoon, so it was good and hot for setting things up. However, unlike last year the pool was open, so we headed there for a while after camp was set up. It was nice to be able to cool off although it was a bit chilly. Anyway we spent a while there, then went out to dinner at Red Pepperoni in town for calzones. At night we realized that Beth had forgotten to pack a part of her CPAP, which really panicked her for a while, but with the AC going in the camper nobody really heard her much. So anyway early Monday morning Beth and I went on an expedition searching for a medical supplies place in town where we could get one. We actually did find one that had the part in stock and were able to buy it from them, so that was quite a win. The rest of Monday it was overcast and drizzly, so we went on a day trip to Corydon IN to take the tour of Indiana Caverns. Unfortunately Beth's knee (probable torn meniscus) hurt too much to go on the tour. She couldn't walk down the slope to the cave and walking down the slippery stairs and however long the tour went. She tried but it just hurt too much, so she bowed out just inside the entrance. Which is a shame because the tour was really cool, with lots of formations and the second half of the tour is a boat ride through the cave. Lots of stuff to see in there, including all the prehistoric animal bones. After the cave tour we stopped in town to get ice cream at the famous Butt Drugs. The rest of the week at the park it was very nice, mostly cloudy but no rain and cooler, maybe only 75 degrees at most. Which meant we had to do some shopping for some clothes because Alex and Nat hadn't brought any jeans or sweatshirts or anything to wear when it was cooler. We also hit the antiques Lumber Mill, and some of the other cool shops in Madison. We did some hiking (turns out trail #8, which goes by the top of the big falls, does not provide a very good view of it), saw a lot of turkeys, I took the kids through the tunnel again, we hit the pool again, and we did some hiking along the creek bed where we found quite a bit of washing-away (trees, rocks, signs, etc) having happened from some pretty severe storms that came through a few days before we got there. We left Thursday morning, stopping in Indy for lunch and to visit with PJ. He found a really cool old pizza place in an Indy burb. 

Even though we were back from camping, I took Friday off. Beth had an appointment in FW to get to, which was why we didn't stay longer. Then we went out to lunch at Crazy Egg. We had a couple of graduation parties to visit over the weekend, and at one of them (Mayson's) we found out that the McDonalds had been camping at Clifty Falls the same time as us! They were there for a vintage camper rally, and had been there the week before (including the huge storms that knocked out power to the camp and felled a bunch of trees and branches, and sent a flash flood through down the canyon. We got there on Sunday afternoon, and they left Monday morning, and neither knew the other was there. We could have had dinner together and hung out around the fire or something if we'd known. 

VBS was this week! We haven't helped out much in a few years, but I was asked if I would be a group leader, which I would. Beth wasn't going to because her back and her knee have been hurting so much lately, but her back has been a lot better and she thought she'd be ok, so she was with me for the week. They divided the kids up into groups with age differences (to keep the same-age kids more separated, to help maintain order) and had only a few kids per leader. We only had 3 kids in our group, which went to the various stations with a few other groups with their own leaders. That way there were plenty of leaders, to help maintain order. The theme of the week was 'I am a treasure!' and we had a lot of fun with the songs and games and lessons. There were over 75 kids each day, and we raised over $1600 for Arabic-English Bibles for a certain north African country!

Tuesday I left VBS a bit early because there was an 8:00 softball game, and we were a bit short handed... because of VBS. We played all right, and I tried a new position I've never played before, being third base. I did ok with fielding, making throws is a bit shaky though. About halfway into the game, Norm at first base was in a big collision and got spilled pretty bad, landing on his face and getting a big scrape. The game had to be stopped because he was bleeding quite a bit. He just wanted to rub some dirt on it and go on, but rules are rules. He didn't want to come out of the game either. We kept on, but shortly thereafter I did trade places with him and took first myself but only because he didn't have sunglasses and could see the ball coming to him. Anyway, as I said, we played all right, but in the end we lost 10-9. We had our opportunities.....

Missy's birthday was this week! I feel bad for her, she had to work on her birthday. It was pretty busy too. No party either: the pool is still freezing cold, we're getting ready to go camping next week, and many of her friends are away, so there was no good time for her to have one. Beth and I got all her presents from Amazon so she did have something, but we're hoping that she can have friends over for some sort of party soon this summer.

 Judy and Neill came to visit this week. They felt bad about missing Alex's graduation so they stopped by while out & about to visit for a bit. They left their giant motor coach somewhere and just drove the car here, but they'd also emptied their fridge so they had a bunch of stuff for us to store for them. We packed our fridge and all of our coolers with their stuff. They got here on Friday; Beth and I took them out to dinner at the Boathouse. We spent Saturday with them (went to get ice cream at Kelainey's while Missy was working), and they took Alex out to dinner wherever he chose (and he picked Wings Etc, of all places) then on Sunday they met us for church! They left after the service, and were gone by the time the rest of us got out of Sunday school, back to Michigan.

Natalie has been housesitting for Mary Jane this week, while she is visiting her son's family near Indy (just had her first grandbaby only days ago). There were actually times over the weekend when all 3 of the kids were gone from the house and Beth and I were completely alone! Nat brought her overnight stuff to the apartment and took care of the dog and cat fir a few days. Then of course we get the panicked call around 10 pm on Friday that she had locked herself out of the apartment in her pajamas. Since we didn't have a key either I wasn't sure what we were going to do, I guess call a locksmith, but MJ said she had gotten in before with a credit card so I went over to try it. I had no luck whatsoever with that, but MJ called a friend who it turns out also has a key, and he came on over to let her in.

Also this week since graduation is all over, I have set up the pool. Dragged it out of the garage (it had been on top of the camper in the garage since last summer, and we'll need the camper soon!) and started the usual filling up with the hose which takes some 12 hours, I reckon. It still has some leaks, but the ones in the inflatable ring are more troublesome than the pinhole water leaks along the sides. I was hoping they would have magically fused shut over the past 8 months....

Softball was rained out this week. Although I should say we were "rained out" with air quotes because although it had been drizzling a bit most of the day, by game time it had quit and the sun came out. It was called just around the same time I was thinking 'I guess we'll get to play after all!'

 We are the proud parents of a high school graduate! It's all over. Alex had an AP English test on Tuesday (after the end of the school year because he forgot about it a couple weeks ago in school. A teacher asked him why he wasn't taking the AP test....) and that was it. I got a notification soon after that Digipen had received his final transcript and his enrollment is complete. So he'll be heading off to college soon. But first, the celebration. The graduation itself was held Friday evening, a nice hot day, but we sat in the bleachers with our backs to the sun and there was a nice breeze. Nearly 500 students graduated, which meant that it took a long time to read all the names. I had taken Friday off to help get ready for the party which was Saturday. Mostly getting the yard all nice and getting the tent set up. We borrowed the big tent that the church camping group owns; on Thursday I went over and picked up 6 tables, 50 chairs, and the tent (2 trips). By Friday afternoon everything was set up, although I wasn't sure exactly where all the chains and ropes went, so I guessed (wrong). The party was from 11-2 on Saturday in the backyard. We had bought 100 hot dogs and a bunch of veggies and watermelon, and got a bunch of cupcakes, and we were grilling the dogs and going picnic style. We had a good crowd, most everyone we were expecting came by for a while and there was pretty solid traffic the whole time. Marve & Beth came from Michigan, so did Ric & Nickie and Ryan. All of our church friends came over, and many of Alex's friends from school. Alex took off at exactly 2 even though there were still people there, but he had other parties to get to before they ended.....

Meanwhile on Friday, the washing machine died. Or at least was dying. It's been making grinding noises and not spinning like it should for a little while now, so I took a brief video of what it was doing and popped over to Smith Appliance to show them. It just so happened that they didn't have anything scheduled for their service tech that afternoon, so we got same day service. He found that a spline fitting on the tub spindle had worn all the teeth off, and he had the part in his truck, so it got repaired right away.

Missy had her second driving test on Thursday, and passed with flying colors this time! So it seems my insurance is about to go way up again. Two licensed teen drivers, oh my....

The church softball team had a good win on Tuesday. The game started out as a pitcher's duel, more or less, with us leading 1-0 for a few innings, until things broke open, more or less. They scored a few runs over a couple innings, then we had a big string of hits and scored 6 runs late in the game. I finally even scored my first run of the season, and had a couple nice hits....