Bike ramp!

The kids have used bike ramps at two of the neighbors' houses. The neighbor across the street had a small wooden one, and the other neighbor has a bigger one that has two ramps connected. When I searched online for the one they had, it was out of stock everywhere. I looked online and found a description of how to build one. I sent it to Grandma by email and asked if Pop Pop might be able to make one for the kids, possibly as a birthday gift for Oliver. Pop Pop got to it right away. Paul brought it home from work last Sunday, but it needed some modifications. Those were made this week by Pop Pop. Paul added rubber to the bottom so it wouldn't slip on the driveway and brought it home from work last night. After watching church online this morning, we let the kids try it out for the first time. Nadia only tried it once. She crashed. Ian did it a few times, but he's not a fan. Oliver, Westyn, and Addi have gone over it many times today. Westyn is definitely the most skilled. Addi turned 10 four days ago. Westyn is 3 weeks younger than Oliver. Oliver is very thankful that Pop Pop made him a bike ramp!

March 15 was the first Sunday we had church at home due to COVID-19. That Sunday we watched our own church's online service. Since then we have watched other church services most Sundays. We listened to Pastor Andy Stanley several of the weeks, for example. Today we watched our pastor's sermon, and I'm very glad we chose to do so because he made a wonderful announcement. Two weeks ago he announced that the first step toward reopening would be to have watch parties  - small groups gathering in different rooms in the church to watch the online service. That didn't appeal to our family. He had said in that announcement they were going to take things very slowly because of the size of the church. Well they had a change of plans over the last couple of weeks because today he announced that they will resume in person worship services in TWO weeks. Yahoo!!!! This was a very unexpected surprise! We'll attend FBC next Sunday and then resume at our church on June 21. He also said that masks are not required!!! You can wear them if you want to, but they won't require masks. Our family has chosen NOT to wear masks unless required; I'm so grateful we won't have to wear them at church. They are asking people not to come more than 15 minutes before the service begins. They won't be passing out bulletins, no shaking hands, no hugging, no gathering at the altar for prayer (there's usually a time for that in every service for those who want to come forward for prayer), and those coming to the second service are to wait in their cars until the people attending the first service leave. There won't be any classes offered the first few weeks - just the worship service at 9:00 and 10:45, but in the middle of July they are planning to reopen the kids' classes. We will be asked to register ahead of time so that they know how many will be at each service to make sure social distancing guidelines can be followed and will continue to also offer the services online for those who are ill or elderly or have other health issues impacting their immune system. I am SO happy that today was our last Sunday of having church in our family room. I'm hoping churches are never required to close again. I don't think I'll ever understand why it's been okay to shop at Walmart and Home Depot but not go to church or the library.

P.S. I took pic at the top of the post around 7:00am on June 3 when I noticed that Oliver was sleeping with his head resting on his hippo rather than his pillow.