Small Group Meetup (Summer)

I've really wanted the family to get involved in another Church Small Group for a while now. The Parents Group I've been going to when Shane's in Youth Group finished for the summer. However, they wanted to have a party to celebrate summer and it was going to be in Schuyler (pronounced sky-ler). That was close to our neck of the woods (and the Waltons museum for any fans).  

I bought a bunch of ice cream as our contribution to the party.

And then ran straight home, because I'd forgotten something important.

Tick spray! The family hosting the event said they had a lot of them on their property!

Shane and I finally got to see the waterfall when we drove through town.

The family hosting the party had a big property including a lake. 

But the party stayed inside for most of the time we were there. Shane was awkwardly the only kid in his age range. Everyone else was either older or younger. 

He got to play some ping pong (and learned how hard it is). One of the older kids put on Iron Man later for him to watch.

I would go back and forth talking upstairs and then going down to check on Shane. A lot of the families and kids in the families were already friends from earlier in the year, so we were the new guys. Carrie stayed home. I never managed to get her plugged into the group, and she missed us so we left after a couple of hours. 

Shane, the turd, had complained about going and about not wanting to be there in the beginning. He'd left the house and walked around in the back yard alone until I made him come back in to talk to people, but can you guess what his tune was when it was time to go? Nooooooo, now I want to stay! I don't care that it's almost half an hour a way, can you leave me and then come back? 

I'm still hoping to find a Christian small group NEAR us with people Carrie and Shane connect to. I'd love to find more connections myself, but they need the connections more than I do. I'm sad it hasn't happened yet, but this group will at least make Shane more familiar with other kids at the church. He'll be a veteran get to welcome all the younger kids coming up at the start of next year!