{"id":1724,"date":"2013-10-22T21:18:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T21:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/10\/a-full-rich-week-part-i.html"},"modified":"2013-10-22T21:18:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-22T21:18:00","slug":"a-full-rich-week-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/10\/a-full-rich-week-part-i.html","title":{"rendered":"A full rich week, part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Starting last Saturday, it\u2019s been a full, rich week.\u00a0 This weekend was the 18th birthday of our oldest boy.\u00a0 Making us proud is just part of the package.\u00a0 We knew it\u2019s been a rough few years, but we\u2019ve worked hard to have fun, and give him as many boosts as we could.\u00a0 He\u2019s had it the toughest of all, as our movement into the Catholic Church hit him the most.\u00a0 But he\u2019s weathered it well, and overall has made it through the dark times as well as anyone that age could be expected, and sometimes better.\u00a0 So the next few posts are going to be shameless indulging in the wonderful family, our awesome son, and the stuff of future memories.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

First, it all started a week before.\u00a0 Busy schedule and mandatory overtime have eaten into what time we had, but we reserved the weekends for as much fun and catch up work as possible.\u00a0 After Mass on Sunday, we visited my old stomping grounds outside of Mt. Gilead, Ohio.\u00a0 A Lutheran camp is there, as it was when I was in school.\u00a0 It was the location of our sixth grade annual camp, from Wednesday to Friday, usually the first week of November. <\/p>\n

Each year they have a Maple Syrup festival and in the fall, an Apple Butter Festival.\u00a0 I forgot about the place for the longest time.\u00a0 In my ministry days, however, I was part of the local Ministerial Association.\u00a0 And in the first week of November, usually the first Wednesday, we would gather in the morning to noontime and discuss Advent preparations.\u00a0 We would also have a break, and that\u2019s when I left and strolled by myself around the leaves and remnants of the foliage. The trees were always yellow.\u00a0 There was a section of old pines, and an ancient beech tree that was there when I was a kid, fenced in to keep people from getting to close.\u00a0 Alas, the ages finally took their toll.\u00a0 The pine trees are now where locals who keep the camp have a trailer, and the ancient beech that endured year after year of curious kids, including an old photo shoot of my own boys, succumbed to time.\u00a0 We also found out my old school has long since stopped bringing kids here for camp.\u00a0 Still, it was a good time, if not a\u00a0bit somber.<\/p>\n

Because of the feelings from seeing the old tree down, and the lack of funds for good old Apple Butter specials (though we did splurge on some fresh apple dumplings), we got in the car and rode up to Mt. Gilead proper, to take in a first leg in our annual Cemetery Ghost Run.\u00a0 More of a formality now, when the boys were little, it was a time to scare and frighten, tell ghost stories, look at creepy old mausoleums, and if a strange, unexplained noise suddenly burst forth, all the better!\u00a0 We do it now for our youngest.\u00a0 Though this time, there were some pretty eerie occurrences. <\/p>\n

Finally we went to old State Lakes, the local state park.\u00a0 Not much more than a reservoir, it has some nice hiking trails, and a few memories.\u00a0 I used to run the trails in cross country.\u00a0 Years later, we used to bring the boys here back in the day when I would take them to my old homecoming games and parades.\u00a0 Now they are bigger, their school has replaced mine, as it should be.\u00a0 But we went back through the trail to an old creek where my second boy famously lost a shoe when he was little, and where this time we saw a pile of clothes that looked a lot like state issue. Beating a hasty retreat, we made it back to the van, then home in time for some Halloween fun with the Peanuts Gang, after stopping by to see the house my Dad built. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Our youngest being awesomely photogenic at the Apple Butter festival<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Trying their hands at a homemade slingshot \u2013 they almost got the target<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Another shameless shot of our youngest, not quite sure what to do on a bouncy toy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Symbolic of the recent years of our lives, a vibrant tree around which the boys posed all those years ago<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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The Ghost Walk 2013 begins!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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This begs for a caption<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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The boys at Gilead State Park, displaying their unique personalities<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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Running in their own ways<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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This was a week earlier, at a place we usually wind up the Ghost Walks, but couldn\u2019t resist the picture<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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More to come in A full rich week, Part II!!<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starting last Saturday, it\u2019s been a full, rich week.\u00a0 This weekend was the 18th birthday of our oldest boy.\u00a0 Making us proud is just part of the package.\u00a0 We knew it\u2019s been a rough few years, but we\u2019ve worked hard to have fun, and give him as many boosts as we could.\u00a0 He\u2019s had it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA full rich week, part I<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Starting last Saturday, it's been a full, rich week.  This weekend was the 18th birthday of our oldest boy.  Making us proud is just part of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/10\/a-full-rich-week-part-i.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A full rich week, part I\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Starting last Saturday, it's been a full, rich week.  This weekend was the 18th birthday of our oldest boy.  Making us proud is just part of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2013\/10\/a-full-rich-week-part-i.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daffey Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-22T21:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/files\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-sDNJDYpjjQw\/UmcaaGaPPII\/AAAAAAAAFxg\/jKrvon_mTFI\/s400\/jon+at+apple+butter.png\" 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