Janellephant: July 2006

Thursday evening we had a celebration for the 2006 high school graduates of our church... we called it The 2006 Senior Progressive Dinner... we had a blast!
It started with appetizers at Jeremy's (shrimp with cocktail sauce, sushi, stuffed mushrooms, crackers and fancy cheese, gingerale and juices in fancy champagne glasses). Then we proceeded to Tommy's house where his mother had prepared a wonderful meal of chicken with broccoli, sweet bread and rolls, and pasta (again with the fancy dishes and glasses). Then we finished by coming to my place with cheesecake, cream puffs, Milano cookies, and coffee (also with the fine china stuff). Then Matt (the pastor) and myself gave each of the graduates some parting gifts and words of encouragement and wisdom. We finished by praying for each of them. It was a really great night and I will always cherish the time I have had with these young men. Well, before I go getting too sappy... here are some pics from the evening's festivities! Enjoy!

Riley

Mike

"Magnum" (Fc3 Graduates)

Fc3 Group

At the dinner table

It's here... the moment you've all been waiting for... The Grand Canyon 2006 blog post with pictures!!! Whoo hoo!
Well, let me tell you, the trip was amazing... in fact it was "once in a lifetime" amazing. I'll probably never have the opportunity to do that kind of trip again... but I would do it again if I could. Hey, maybe someday I can take my kids! (what a thought)
As I'm typing this, I'm trying to figure out what I can say, in this post, that can give you (my loyal reader) a glimpse of what I felt and experienced... I'm drawing a blank... Wow, the Grand Canyon, one of the "wonders of the world." It is so beautiful and so amptly displays God's majesty here on earth.
Besides the scenery, which I will cease to try to describe because I won't be able to do it justice, I met some wonderful people on this trip. We were quite a mix of people. There was a fun-loving, and might I say very sarcastic, family from Iowa (papa was from Arizona), a father and daughter from Pennsylvania who learned to love playing Maffia, a sweet couple who are both teachers (I think they were from Pennsylvania too), and a fun family of four from New Jersey who's youngest son always had us laughing. We also had 3 and a half guides. (by half I mean we had three guides and one intern who was learning how to be a guide). And finally, us! Which included my dad, his wife, their two teenagers, me, Chris, and my brother Daniel.
All 27 of us floated down the Colorado River inside the Grand Canyon for 187 miles. The rapids of the Grand Canyon are one of only three other rivers who's rapids are rated on a 1-10 scale (all other rapids are rated on a 1-6 scale). During those 187 miles, we did rapids that were rated 1, we did rapids rated 10 and we did rapids that rated everywhere in between! It was fantastic! We all had a blast. God was so good to us... He gave us great cohesion as a group, crazy good weather (the guides said that the way the weather was acting, one would think we were on a September trip instead of a July trip!), and safety!

We put in the water on July 4th and then we camped on the shore of the river for 5 nights and were helicoptered out of the canyon 5 days later on the morning of the 9th. What a week... and I mean WHAT A WEEK! Ok, well I can't think of anything else at the moment so I'll post some pictures. Enjoy!