a blessed family weekend

we've had a wonderful weekend with my parents! the weather reports were stacked against us and everything we had planned for the weekend, but our prayers were answered with blessings at every turn!

we started out friday night at spencer's final baseball game. we were rained out wednesday night-a blessing in disguise! mom and dad haven't been able to attend a game all season because of the schedule (monday and wednesday games), their full-time jobs, and the distance that separates us. with this one reschedule, we were all blessed-spencer with grandparents cheering from the sidelines and the team with their final win. spencer played a great game and was brought in as a team "closer" in the final inning. he didn't disappoint! three batters-three outs! we then drove down to a toledo mudhens' baseball game! a double hitter for us! spencer and connor both got new mudhens baseballs!today we had a great summertime saturday! panera breakfast...baseball practice...rained out practice...a new piece of brighton...spedie lunch at home...greenfield village visit...moe's for dinner...relaxing outside...tree trimming...knitting...learning to ride!

we were all relaxing outside tonight, when connor came out of the garage and announced "I want to try this!" that's all it took. mark was up and teaching connor to ride without training wheels! he was determined to learn and when he realized he could actually ride by himself, all he could do was giggle! he probably dove off the bike into the grass a few times just because he was laughing so hard! up and down the block he went, wearing a "path" between our house and the neighbors to the north and south. the only part that needs some additional practice is starting out by himself.

mark was such an encourager and ever patient teacher! what an excellent earthly example of our heavenly Father. for each of us (no matter how young or old we are) has to learn new things, make mistakes, get up and try again, and celebrate successes. our heavenly Father is forever at our side encouraging us to "get up and try again, I'm here to help you." this was the most unplanned event of the weekend and gave us the most unexpected blessing! thanks so much for modeling Christ to your son, mark!

I know you'll want to read mark's version of these events!