A few more pictures from our time with Eric's family

(Create your own caption here.) 

Sportin' the shades on Pikes Peak 

Each family took an evening and provided dinner.  I planned to grill Greek burgers and asparagus, but it was Eric and Brigitte who braved the rain.

Watching the hummingbirds with Opa

A friendly little game of Catan.

Eliana loves the water. Even icy cold water.

 Eric and Brigitte

I have to post, because the pictures are piling up. I'm sure there will be more to come.

Our trip out West started with a stop in Hays to see our friends Daron and Heather.  The hospitality was amazing, and the fellowship was even better.  We always love spending time with them.  Our journeys are very parallel, even though the details are different. I forgot to take a picture of Eliana with their three little ones, but hopefully we'll get a picture when they come our direction in October.

On our way down from one of the Green Mountain Falls

After Hays, we headed to Green Mountain Falls, just outside of Colorado Springs.  We had a great time with Eric's family, including his great aunt, Brigitte.  We did the big attractions, like Cave of the Winds and Pikes Peak.  We also hiked to three waterfalls, two of which you can walk to from Ruble and Brandi's house.  The best times were just hanging out, cooking dinner for each other and asking Brigitte questions about her life in Germany growing up.

Adams Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park
She's so happy to be visiting her first national park

On top of her first 14er

Cuddling on the trail

After GMF (as they affectionately and sometimes confusingly refer to it), the whole family drove up to Granby for the wedding of a longtime family friend.  The groom is Spanish, so we had fun with the cultural and linguistic opportunities.  Eric struck up some conversations about Andres Iniesta and the World Cup, while I was roped into translating for my very ornery father-in-law.

The Simon family
(minus Ruble, who is playing horseshoes, and including the much loved aunt, Brigitte)

Dancing with Uncle Ruble

Sleeping in Nana's arms

The reception

The Blood of Twilight

A note to my friends: If you’re a Twilight fan and I haven’t talked to you about the issues with Twilight in person, I apologize. Hopefully you’ll hear my heart as you read.

While there are all kinds of problems with the Twilight series, the one that makes me want to pull out my hair, or at least a sturdy soapbox, is the issue of blood. Twilight's vampire is good, I'm told, because he suppresses his urges and only sucks the blood of animals. “It's like eating tofu,” they say. “You’re never really full.” It’s a catchy comparison, but it doesn’t override a foundational, Biblical truth – the blood belongs to the L-rd.

I realize that blood is practically a non-issue in contemporary faith. Every now and again it shows up in a worship song, perhaps around Easter, but it carries only a vague, esoteric meaning. And we have no idea what we’re missing. To paraphrase Dr. Moseley, what’s missing in the Church today is the stench of blood from the sacrifices required by our sinful lives. But that’s for another discussion.

The blood is foundational because the L-rd set it up that way in Torah. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement." (Lev. 17:11)

The life is in the blood, and all life comes from Him, the Giver of Life. The blood provided the atonement because of its connection to the life. And if the blood is all about atonement, then the real connection between blood and twilight is not vampires.

"You shall keep it [the Passover lamb] until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it." (Ex. 12:6-7)

Twilight's glorification of vampiric life is an affront to the holy requirements of G-d and to the sacrifice of His Son, our Passover Lamb. The enemy is trying to claim the blood for himself, for the blood is an instrument of worship. He doesn’t care whether Twilight’s readers realize its powerful significance; their ignorance is his bliss. But ignorance cannot be our excuse. Our very covenant with G-d depends on the blood – Messiah’s blood.

Eliana has a lot of great people in her life to learn from.  For instance, in the midst of trying to find a sippy cup or bottle that Eliana would use without crying, we learned from her Aunt Brandi that it's possible for babies to drink from the bite valve of a Camelbak.

From her cousin Cass, we learned that Camelbak makes special bottles just for kids. Here's Eliana's.  She doesn't know it yet, but someday she'll be so excited that she has a bottle like Cass'.

Cass also taught us about the special button, which helps little fingers pop the straw open.  Eliana isn't there yet, but when she is, Cass will make a great teacher.

Her papa didn't really contribute to her water bottle, but he sure helped with her good looks.  Here's Eric at 9 months.

And the screaming?  Well, we're not sure where she gets the screaming.  It might be an Eliana original.  Here's a very tame version.

Attention Football Fans

Even with the United States' disappointing loss to Ghana today, it's no time to lose interest in the World Cup -- and more specifically its effects outside of the stadiums. 

"This window of time during the World Cup represents a moment of crisis when all the contributing factors in the global slave trade will converge in one nation for a thirty-one day period. Conservative estimates suggest that more than 40,000 women and children will be trafficked into and through South Africa leading up to and during the World Cup." 

A ministry called Exodus Cry has put together a World Cup prayer guide.  It's not too late to join with others around the world in asking G-d to intervene and rescue these women and children.

This video that Exodus Cry posted on their website paints a more detailed picture of the trafficking reality in South Africa.



As you find a new team to cheer on to victory, please make prayer for these victims a part of your World Cup experience.

Skunks

So the cutie in the costume is . . . my mom.

But if you guessed that it was me, as many of you did, then you weren't too far off.

Evidently Tom also wore the costume, once upon a time.

I still haven't been able to bring myself to write about Zeke, so how can I write about Wyatt?  The words will come - slowly, through the wrestling - but I'm not there yet.