July 2010 Report

Chayce has been taking full advantage of his short summer before he goes off to ASU in mid August. He went camping with friends in the Del Water Gap to start the month off. They went fishing and canoeing and basically acted like they have no responsibilities in the world.

This is a picture Chayce took on their camping trip of his friend fishing, he used the panoramic feature on his camera, pretty cool huh. This is on the Delaware River that forms the boarder between NJ and PA.

July 4th weekend: Started with fireworks on Lake Hopatcong Friday Night. The video is from our boat. If you look at the horizon and when the lights are bright enough you can see the hundreds of boats. We had a fun time with a bunch of Chayce and Brandon’s friends that joined us for the evening. Some even went swimming while we waited for the fireworks to start.

Boating on the 4th

Kim completed five years of volunteer service at the Seeing Eye and was honored with her fellow volunteers at the annual Volunteer Reception held at the Seeing Eye. She still loves it as much as ever and spends time at both the breeding center playing with puppies and at the downtown center in Morristown helping students as they are training to to work with their new dogs.

Lake Placid Trip

Chayce and Rob went with the YM [16-18] to Venture Camp in Lake Placid and had an absolute awesome time. Three days of jam packed adventure and fun. It was particularly special because four of the boys [including Chayce] have been friends since they were 6 years old and they are all heading off to College or Missions this fall so it was a last big trip together and it was great to see how much they have grown and what great young men they have all become.

Day One – Fishing and Canoeing on Lake Seranac. We stopped at a couple of islands along the way. The first one was all about cliff jumping. It may look high from the pictures, but it looked twice as high from the top when contemplating the jump.

Day Two – Climb up Mt. Marcy, the highest mountain in NY State, that may not be saying much to those who live in the west, but I have tell you it was one intense hike. It was made more difficult by the fact that the thunder and lightning showers parked themselves right on the top of the mountain and didn’t leave for the duration of the hike. I don’t think I have ever been so wet in my life, even when swimming. The rain came down so hard and steady my rain jacket gave up and no longer kept water out. The hike followed a stream that became a raging river by the time we headed back down the mountain. I was unable to get any good pictures because of the rain and our attempts to keep the camera dry. This picture was at the start of the hike before the rain started.

Day Three - Rock Climbing. A lot of fun and a truly cool experience. The boys got to climb four different routes and made it look easy. I even went up a couple of times and surprised myself. It was lots of fun and I’d be up for it again.

Grandpa and Grandma Ririe joined us on our annual visit to Lake Keuka. We rented a house on the lake and did a lot of water skiing, wake boarding, tubing, swimming and eating. It was a great trip and the boys had a good time playing games with Grandpa and Grandma, not the mention giving Grandpa a taste of his own medicine. I think he may have met his match.

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On our way to church the morning of July 4th we got rear ended and it made quite a mess out of my car. It was a lot worse than it looks, the car that hit us was totaled and the two people left in an ambulance. Thankfully both Kim and I were ok [thanks to good German engineering] and other than sore necks and backs for a couple days we haven’t had any issues. Well that is if you don’t consider the fact that I am now without a car for 6 weeks. I have no idea why it is going to take that long, but that’s what they are telling me and my guess is I'll be lucky to get it back that quickly.

Well that’s about all I have for July. August will go quickly so I guess we better get enjoying it.