Finally 18

As I wrote in a letter to Strider for this big week -- the one where he turns 18 AND graduates from high school -- a certain "Homer Price" story that we once read years ago comes to mind when I think of him.

 In the story one of the quirky characters finds a packet of mysterious and presumably very valuable seeds, and he eagerly plants them in a greenhouse.  Pretty quickly the budding plants appear and they rapidly grow and grow and grow -- until soon they are busting out the glass panes of the greenhouse roof.  This is how I picture Strider's spirit through childhood.  He has been wanting to "bust out" of our roof since he was about 3!

So, finally the day arrived when the calendar called him 18 and he proclaimed himself a man.  He has been waiting for this day for eons.

We celebrated with him in the morning and early afternoon, having cake for lunch, before he took off to spend the rest of the day and night with his girlfriend and some friends.  Nonna and Poppa made a special quick visit to commemorate the day.

It ended up being memorable in a few different ways, but at this point that is his story to tell and not mine....

So, we'll just say that he had a mostly happy birthday and we pray that this year brings even more growth and wisdom and closeness to Jesus!

In other news, June 6 was also National Yo-Yo Day which brought all kinds of additional excitement.  The week before, Colsen had conspired with me to buy a surprise yo-yo for Miles -- and Miles had conspired with me to buy one for Colsen!  I loved that they both had the same, thoughtful idea.  And, happily, both yo-yo's, from 2 different companies, arrived right on June 6th.  :)

And, in other other news, Jinna was happy to find a turtle in the wild -- for her first time, as she likes to say.

Big day all around!