Day 2

Eva's first outing in a dress; Eli's wearing his cool criminal duds
Sam is very pleased with himself. Every time he slides down, he smiles the whole way and then usually applauds.
He started out on his stomach and then switched to the more conventional system. Even though these slides are awesome, we agreed that Americans parks could probably never have them for legal reasons
Here he is a with a whole pack of kids. A fun day!

A great day, first church then a trip to the park to meet my old college roommate. Everyone did well, although by dinner time we were all exhausted.

Sam loves these stone slides they have here. There's a set of stairs in the middle and then two slides to each side (and same in the other direction, so eight slides total). He just had a blast. I wish I'd counted how many times he went down--it may well have been 150 or more times. I'm surprised he still had so much pep the rest of the night.

The babies are doing great. They're getting bigger. They're both very cute and smiley right now. Taking them to church is still a bit of a challenge. Part of what's hard is that we're always the center of attention. I feel like people are worshiping the babies! I miss just blending in. Anyways, we may just go with it. I told Emily in some ways I almost feel more comfortable visiting new churches, so perhaps we could visit some congregations of friends. The kids don't mind the attention, although Sam's getting a bit more protective of his own space.

It was an interesting theme today. The pastor talked about tombsweeping, which is the holiday to remember the dead (kind of like All Soul's day?). This church is aboriginal, and the pastor talked about how it's not really their holiday, but it's a good time to remember family. A number of members shared about deceased fathers, mothers, or siblings. I was really struck by the value of such a service. I remember my mom did a service around Christmas for those who were grieving, and I think it's a worthwhile addition for those who are missing family members.