We've had a really busy labor-day weekend so far. I flew back from Rochester on Friday afternoon, and was able to get on standby for an earlier flight through Detroit. Problem was, I couldn't get all the way back to Lansing where I'd flown out of (don't ask me why). The only thing I really needed there was my car. Instead of sitting in the Detroit airport for 6 hours, Will came and picked Bill and I up, getting me home about 6 hours earlier than planned. I was beat. I came home and crashed, while Cathie and the kids were swimming at her parents.

On Saturday, Cathie and I met one of the interim-pastor candidates for Crossroads, named Shan. I really dug the guy. When we first started the whole pastoral search thing, my criteria was that I wanted someone who'd come out of a youth ministry background that had the wisdom that goes with being an experienced pastor. This guy's got both, plus he kinda reminds me of Mike Yaconelli when he talks about what the church should be. He's got his finger on the culture around him, likes to have fun and seems to have a great grasp on what the kingdom of good and the church are all about. He's the kind of guy you'd enjoy sitting down and having a beer with and hanging out. My only concern was that he was very evasive when I asked him what super power he'd choose, if he could choose from any of them. He wanted to have the super powers of the shadow, but Jason explained to me that the Shadow had crazy tibetan mind control powers.


From there, we went to Brad's Cottage to enjoy the end of summer. Brad, Will, Ted and I tried tubing at first, but the boat just couldn't pull that much weight. We ended up going about 5 mph. We eventually got the big four-man tube going where Brad, Eli, Ted and I beat the crap out of each other, throwing each other off at high speeds. The lake was pretty busy, and we were constantly being thrown off and picked up as boats dodged us. At one point, I was floating in the water waiting for the boat and a pontoon boat filled with a big group came by. They asked if I wanted a lift, and proceed to throw me a beer and a jello shot while I waited to get picked up.


On Sunday, Crossroads had a huge picnic - complete with big bouncy things. They had this bunjee rope course that hooked you into a harness while you ran forward as far and fast as you could. When you reached the end of the line, you snapped back - hard. Hard enought to flip you if you did it right. We set money at the end, and if you could go far enough to reach it - it was yours to keep. They finished the picnic off with some fun family games, but we had to head out early to go to Cathie's parents.


Cathie's grandparents were in town, and we hung out with a bunch of family at their pool. It was a perfect day for it - hot and humid, and the pool felt great. The kids were in the water pretty much the whole time. I was amazed that my daughter Madeline (age 6) can do a flip off the diving board (that's her mid-air, above). I was messing around with my camera, taking some pretty cool pictures of Cathie's brother, dad and the kids jumping off the diving board (Those are my father-in-law and brother-in-law in mid-air). We hung out there until about 8, picked my car up from the airport and headed home.


We got home and watched the movie The Big Bounce. It blew.