The Saturday 7

1. Sunday was father's day . . . and I didn't get a single picture of my father or my kids' father. Lol. But we had a really nice day. I made monkey bread for breakfast, and Justin opened the present Levi made him at school. Then we went to church and Justin got to choose the restaurant for lunch. After teasing us for a while about choosing Russ's, he eventually settled on Buffalo Wild Wings . . . where none of us ordered wings. We left with significantly lighter pockets, but that was Justin's only father's day gift, so it was budget-approved. That evening we went to my brother's lake house (which is also his only house - it's just cooler to call it The Lake House). It was brutally hot, but there was a nice breeze and sitting in the shade on his deck was comfortable. We had a delicious dinner of kebabs, then the dads went fishing while the kids tried out the new swimming mat off the end of the dock . . .

After a while, Justin and Tristan came back to do some kayak fishing, and Luke, Tayton, and I took the kids out on the boat. We had a couple of guest captains:

Then poor Luke, Tristan, and Justin got to help a slew of kids try to fish off the dock. Haha. The kids loved it and caught a bunch! Lena and Levi also did a little kayaking, but I went back up to the house so there's no pictures of that. Two more things checked off the bucket list: kayaking and fishing!

Beautiful sunset on the way home.

2. We've had hotter-than-usual weather all week, with temperatures in the 90s pretty much every day. So we made Tuesday a pool day.

The only picture I took. 🤷

I sat in the shade most of the time, so I was surprised when I got home and looked in the mirror:

Don't worry. It was just a nice tan by the next day.

Consistently hot temperatures mean going back into the dreaded cave of darkness in an effort to help our poor old AC unit keep up. I close every curtain and shade to keep the sun out. If it cools off at night, I'll open the windows, but it hasn't gotten below 70 in the past week, so we just live in darkness. And our AC still runs non-stop from about 11:00 a.m. until I turn it off at midnight. 😬 The good news is that the basement of our bilevel house stays nice and cool, so we just hang out down there when the temps spike like this. And for the record, I'll still take these temperatures over winter any day, hands down!

3. On Wednesday we escaped the heat by going to see Inside Out 2 with some friends. I liked it more than I expected to! The new character, Anxiety, was so relatable! At one point, the main emotions are walking through Riley's brain and they come across Imagination Island (or something like that). Joy gets excited that even as Riley ages, she still has a portion of her brain reserved for imagination. But then she's horrified to realize that Anxiety has taken over, using Riley's imagination to think up every horrible scenario that could ever happen to her. I've always said I have anxiety because I have a vivid imagination. The two definitely go hand in hand! 

4. Lena and Levi have a new obsession, thanks to Nova: Art for Kids Hub. They have spent hours following drawing tutorials.

5. I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Indianapolis for the Gospel Coalition for Women with a group from church. I went to this for the first time two years ago (where we had some adventures) and loved it. In 2022, 6 of us went. This year we doubled our number and caravanned 12 women down to Indy!

We got to listen to some amazing speakers, shop an amazing bookstore, stay at a beautiful, safe AirBnB, and spend time together - talking, laughing, making memories, and eating out for almost every meal . . . my favorite. 😁

6. There were 9,000 women at the conference AND the Olympic Swim Trials were being held one block over from the conference center. So you can imagine how swamped the local restaurants were at dinner time. On Thursday, a few of us decided to walk a ways out to avoid some of the crush. Jessie found a restaurant and said, "It's 0.9 miles away." I figured less than one mile was no big deal. I can drive a mile in one minute. How much longer would it take to walk? 🙄 Lo and behold, it took us almost half an hour. And even at 6:00 at night, it was literally 95 degrees. I thought I was going to die. Lol. But my pregnant sister-in-law was marching right along next to me without whining, so I figured if she could do it, I could do it. After guzzling 32 oz. of Dr Pepper, scarfing down a burger, and cooling off in the AC for a while, we started back. The sun was beginning to set behind the city buildings by that point, so it was more bearable and we were able to thrill Esther's little history-loving heart by checking out a few cool buildings/fountains/statues on our way back. Indianapolis really is a pretty city. The architecture puts Grand Rapids to shame. 

I've never wanted to jump into a fountain more in my life. Can you see how red my face is? Lol. So hot.

Esther with Benjamin Harrison

Some funny bears.

7. Something crazy happened at the conference today. In the middle of one of the messages, there was suddenly some commotion in the bleachers next to us. At first I thought it was rude that people were being so loud, but then they started shouting for medical help! It was amazing to see so many women who are obviously nurses or doctors bolt out of their chairs and sprint up those bleacher stairs. And then almost 9,000 women started praying. I started to get real nervous when I heard them calling for an AED. I don't know if they had to use it, but the paramedics arrived quickly and the lady was conscious when they carried her by us. We got word later that she was ok, and they didn't share what her "medical emergency" actually was, but I was so encouraged by how immediately people sprang into action to help a stranger. 

I'm so thankful for a husband who is willing and able to hold down the fort while I was away for three days, and for my sister and mom who watched Lena and Levi while Justin was at work. There's a co-ed version of the Gospel Coalition next April. Think I can talk Justin into going to that for our 20th anniversary? 😂