Breaking Boards and Breaking Away

Well, I’m not sure where the last week went, but I’m going to take a break from vacation stories and tell you about what’s been happening otherwise.

Last Saturday, Charlotte and Elijah both tested at tae kwon do.  This is the first test in which they did not get a new belt color.  They earned their red belts last time and kept them after this testing cycle, with the addition of a yellow tip around the belt; however, instead of being red belts, they are now recommended senior belts.  They will test one more time before they earn their navy blue senior belts.

At this test, for the first time, they had to break two boards.  And each one broke the boards on their first attempts!  It was very cool to watch.

Here are Charlotte and Elijah with their broken boards and their new yellow tips.  Well, you can see Charlotte’s yellow tip anyway!

And here’s the whole family at the end of the test.

This is one activity on which neither one has wavered.  If they keep this up, they are on track to earn their black belts in another 18 to 24 months.  We went down to one class a week during the summer months, as they were gone a lot, but they will be ramping back up come September.  We are very proud of these two!

Last Sunday, we took Elijah to church camp for the first time.  He did the same thing that Charlotte did last year, a two-night “First Chance” session.  Elijah was never very thrilled about going, but a friend from church was going with him, so he rather grudgingly tried to get excited about it.  Of course, his sister was over the moon about camp, so she tried to get him pumped up, too.  This was his very first time away from home without family members, so this was a milestone experience.

Shortly after church, we made the 90-minute drive to Little Galilee Christian Camp in Clinton, Illinois, and got Elijah checked in.  His friend Tyus joined him, and here they are getting settled in the Patience cabin.

After two very quiet days without my boy, Charlotte, Jeremy, and I drove down Tuesday afternoon to pick him up.  Aside from having a bad case of the sniffles, he had an OK time.  Not great, not terrible, just OK.  I had rather hoped that he would enjoy it a bit more, and I think that he MIGHT go back next year.  But some kids just really aren’t campers, and Elijah may be one of them!  We’ll see.

This Sunday, Jeff leaves for Thailand again, and I will drop Charlotte off for her week at Wilderness camp down at Little Galilee.  To say she is excited would be a gross understatement!

Anyway, this past Wednesday, the kids and I headed to Michigan to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and niece.  And I’ll post some pictures about that next time.  And then maybe I’ll get back to our vacation.

I hope that your weekend has been good!