Weekend with Grandpa

My dad spent 46.5 hours with us this weekend. He arrived on Friday night. Due to a flat tire Paul didn't come home on Friday night. Saturday morning my dad and I watched Ian's second U8 game and Oliver's first ever soccer game. All three games were at 9:00, and Nadia's was at a field VERY far away. Thankfully she was able to ride with her coach. All three kids are the weak links on their teams. It's not surprising for Nadia and Oliver considering he's brand new and only just turned four), but it is disappointing as Ian did really well the last season. Oliver played 3 on 3 for 3 of the 4 quarters. At U8 games they play 5 on 5 with three being on offense and two on defense. Ian sat on the bench for two quarters, played offense for one, and played fullback for the other. It was his second U8 game. The other game he played offense once and half-back once. Nadia's team won big time (14-3), and her friend Claire scored 7 of the goals. Nadia was one of two girls on the team who didn't score any goals. They have a goalie (which isn't true for U6 or U8). Nadia played offense one quarter and defense in two quarters.

Each team has seven players (including the goalie) on the field. Next week I won't see Oliver's game but will see Ian and Nadia's games. I am trying to rotate myself evenly between their games.

After we picked Nadia up from the meeting place, my dad and I drove the kids to Knoebels. I had picked that day because they were having a buy one get one free special. Sometimes we split up and other times all five of us were together. My dad and the kids had hand stamps, and I used some ride tickets we had purchased another year. Nadia rode several rides for the first time -ones she is finally tall enough to ride but didn't have time to ride when we went to the park in April. One of those included the Impulse. She rode it first with Grandpa and then later with me. It was the first time any of us had ridden that roller coaster. Usually we get one large pizza for dinner at Knoebels and eat a packed lunch. Yesterday we did eat a packed lunch, but we didn't get pizza so we paid more for our dinner than usual, but considering Grandpa graciously paid for the kids' hand stamps, it was not an expensive outing for us at all. The weather was nice although if it had been a little warmer we would have done the Skloosh. Grandpa did the flume with Nadia and Ian once, and I did the flume with Ian and Oliver once and with just Oliver a second time (because he begged me to do it again). After eight hours in the park we were all tuckered out. The boys all slept during at least part of the ride home. Nadia and I were the only ones who stayed awake until we got home a little after 9:00 pm.

This weekend was the annual yard sale weekend for our town. We did do some yard sale shopping on Friday before and after gym class, but I didn't do any on Saturday. Time with Grandpa was far more important. I did get a few items on Friday that I was hoping to find such as snow boots for Nadia and two booster seats for Paul's car.

The reason my Dad came up this weekend was because of Nadia's baptism. There were 11 children and teenagers baptized this morning, which is very different from the baptisms I have witnessed at this church over the past two years. They have baptisms every other month, and almost all the people I have seen baptized there have been adults. I wish I could show a video, but Paul experienced a technological glitch. I will be able to share in the future the video they made last Sunday which they showed the congregation right before she was baptized. I am just waiting for them to post it on the church's website. I did take some photos though (see below) of this momentous occasion. I still remember being baptized when I was about her age in Texas. I'm very thankful that Paul's parents and my dad were able to be there to witness this special event. I wish my mom could have been there also. My dad had a smooth trip home. He had toyed with staying until the end of the Steelers game today, but in light of how badly they played today, I am glad he left at 5:00. He is going to be driving to Tennessee tomorrow so I'm glad he got home at 8:30 pm.

I had gotten the DVD of "God's Not Dead 2" from the library last Monday so that I could watch it with my dad on Friday or Saturday night, but we didn't end up having time to watch it with him. Paul and I did watch it this evening, and I give it two thumbs up!