Goin' Goth

Hopefully Asa learned his lesson about leaving his markers out.

Lesson learned: Never trust an unusually quiet baby!!

KY State Fair

It's that time of year again . . . when the Preston family gets strangely and manically excited about the fair. This year we were joined by my sister and her daughter, and we had a great time. Here are some highlights and pictures!

Okay, I know it's not a picture of our family, but this was the most beautiful rooster I've ever seen. His tail was so perfectly rounded and his colors were amazing. I hope he won a prize. BTW, Maddie can do an amazingly accurate immitation of a rooster. I also got to hold baby chicks which was fun, but pretty much guaranteed I wouldn't be eating any chicken that day!

This is Caroline (obviously) in front of the rabbits. There were some amazing rabbits there, especially ones called Otter Black rabbits - Beautiful!
(Above and Below) Asa and Maddie both made beeswax candles at the 4H exhibit area. We always enjoy seeing the beehive and seeing if we can find the queen. Asa also enjoys looking at the bug collections in the judging area. He's well on his way to having a pretty cool collection.

What fair is complete without having a cutout picture taken. Here Abe and Mary Todd enjoying the day.

You may not be able to see this very well, but this is "Bruiser - The World's Largest Dog". We were all siked about seeing this enormous dog and we had even spent considerable time discussing the breed beforehand - "Was it a great Dane or a Saint Bernard?" -- NEITHER! It was a dumb dressed up dog that we darted over to see! Uh! One parent, upon seeing Bruiser, even uttered a phrase that my kids have never heard before! YIKES! As Jessi, my niece, said, "We need some earmuffs!"

Above are pictures of one of the highlights - the National Guard Obstacle Course. We had told Maddie she was too small, but she insisted she could do it! That girl always amazes us with her tenacity and fire. She did that entire course by herself with only one nudge from Logan along the way. She is so full of spirit!
Becky, Jessi and the kids on the tram taking us to the rides.

This is the part that Maddie is still talking about - the bungee jumping thing. She had so much fun - until the guy tried getting her to do a flip. At 10:00 at night, she is not interested in doing flips. Anyway, here are a couple more of her doing that!

The Father-Son Campout (from Logan)

July 19Th several fathers from our church packed their wide-eyed, adventurous sons for a time of camping, cooking, and spiritual renewal. Asa and I were among those caught up in this eastward trek. We had hoped for a relaxing camping trip and what we got was so much more.

We began Friday night with some games in the grass and a dinner of hamburgers and chips. After dinner we played a modified version of capture the flag, where two teams were pitted against each other with socks filled with flour as weapons. It was great and as you can imagine the rules were constantly changing to protect the little ones younger than nine.

That night we gathered around the fire to cook smores and talk. Lee Sexton (one of the church elders) led us in a short devotional and then set us (fathers) up for a time to share our love for Jesus Christ with our sons. We pulled away each to our families and I found talking to Asa about Jesus (a thing I do regularly) a very difficult task. The weight of my love for my savior and my son was overwhelming. I struggled greatly to fight back the tears but I managed to share Christ's love for us and my desire for Asa to love and to serve Him.

We slept OK that night and woke to a great feast. Myself and others prepared five dozen eggs with cheese, an army of sausages, several large bags of hash browns with seasoning, and a couple dozen bagels. It was a feast to be sure and we enjoyed it immensely. After breakfast we took a hike and the dads talked about history and botany while the boys ran ahead to explore the unknown. When we came back to camp we packed up and headed out.

I said before that more happened than I had thought might. The truth is that the fullness of a weekend like that one may be seen in the strong stares of our sons' eyes into ours. It may be seen in their greater desire to be near us. It may be seen in the hugs and smiles that they offer that seem to be of more substance than we had noticed before. It may be, but most likely the true fullness of that weekend will be seen in the eyes of our Lord as He shares with us the fruit of our repeated attempts with our sons: "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Here's me with our tent.

Asa loved exploring with the flashlight.

The boys couldn't stay away from the fire.

Look at our man-feast!

The hike proved to be a great time.