En Garde: First Fencing Tournament

In the picture above, Josiah and some friends from his fencing school wait with Colleen (his instructor, in front with the name GALLANT on her pants) for the start of the tournament

Josiah had the opportunity to participate in his first "real" tournament in Charlotte. He placed better than he thought: out of 20 fencers in the open, he placed 13th. His instructor, Colleen, said he did better than she thought he might for his first tournament.
He won some bouts and lost some bouts, but had a good time overall!

Josiah on the left.



Josiah on the right.



Josiah on the left again.

In the following video, Josiah scores a touch after a short bout.

Rain in our creek

The creek on our property has been making beautiful music due to the rain...




And we found an umbrella for a mouse:

Learning about the solar system

Joshua made a solar system model for science today (complete with spaceships and stars):

Labor Day on Lake Norman

Friends of ours from church invited us to spend the day with them for Labor Day this year. They rented a house on Lake Norman for the week, and allowed us to share in the fun things to do. What a great time we all had!

Our hosts:

There was a big water trampoline that even Joshua swam to (wearing a life jacket, of course). It wasn't too bouncy, but it was fun!



Joshua preferred the land trampoline at first, until he found out how much fun it was to play in the lake.


They took us for rides in their motor boat:

which could drag the "molecule" behind. As the boat went faster, the ride got rough and it could be difficult to hang on. Some kids really liked a rough ride (like Josiah), but others preferred to just glide behind the boat.
Here is Josiah and a boy from another family preparing to ride the molecule:
See the molecule go:



Sarah collected shells:


and rode in the canoe:



After dinner, we played a rousing game of volleyball by the lake:



And at sunset, Josiah took one more ride on the jet ski, while Rebekah and Sarah tried the knee board behind the motor boat.


Aaah. Sunset on the lake:

A trip to Carowinds

Our summer ended with a bang...riding roller coasters and having fun at Carowinds!

As you can see, we straddled the border of the Carolinas (and insanity) that day:




As night fell, we had local country faire for dinner:

Ready to fence...

Not picket fence...foil fence!

Josiah got new gear for fencing. He's hoping to compete in tournaments this year so we bought him the necessary equipment. It will be nice to have his own equipment instead of using the smelly (!) uniforms and masks that kids share at the fencing academy. Here he is modeling his new stuff:

UNCC Botanical Gardens Greenhouse

Our care group couples went to the UNCC Botanical Gardens Greenhouse over the weekend for special time together. Here are some pictures of the beautiful growing things that we saw:










John was our guide, telling us about every species of orchid, palm, herb or fern. Apparently they no longer have a Botany degree at UNCC, but due to some donations, they keep up this greenhouse.