Team Edge Skating

Team Edge got together again today, but this time not for training - it was time to relax and have some fun together.  It was also somewhat of a birthday party for Maddie, who has been wanting to go back skating for some time now.

They had a great time down there skating the full three hours, and Maddie was quick to report the amount of times each person had fallen down, which wasn't too much, fortunately!  As you can see, there wasn't a tremendous crowd like there can be from time to time, so it was just a great time together.  After so much training and work, this was nice to just chill together and have a fun time.

And of course they ate together too, although this looks like something from another place to eat - the first picture is from a Mexican restaurant that they met at, where Maddie had tamales.  Anything with spice or hot sauce, and Maddie is all in.

So meanwhile, I was over at the church helping with a big Summer Xtreme Day, something we were doing to promote Summer Xtreme at the churches.  This was about four hours of service, games, music, a message, and then rides outside too - and remarkably, the weather cleared up just so we could have this event.  Although, it was rather hot.  But it still was fun!

We all got home about the same time, which makes sense as I actually went to go pick up Maddie and Nate from the roller skating rink.  We got home, and Mom had the Army's 250th anniversary parade playing on the television.  It was pretty impressive, this look back at the history of the US Army, complete with soldiers dressed in fatigues from each era, and of course all the different military vehicles.  So many tanks and helicopters from various eras - the kids must have loved seeing all these huge army vehicles roll by.  And at the end of it all was a fireworks display there at the capital, maybe one of the biggest I've ever seen.  Pretty patriotic sort of moment!

After that, I had a concert to attend:

Tonight I was watching an online concert, a nice part of the They Might Be Giants "Instant Fan Club," which I've been a member for the last several years.  One of the perks of membership is getting access to a concert online, which I got to see one of about three years ago.  The thing about this one, however is that it started at 8pm SEATTLE time, which is about 11pm for us here in the Eastern Time Zone.  It was a pretty late night for me, sitting there with headphones and watching my computer screen.

All that said, it was a super fun concert as always.  I've seen them in person a few times, dating back to my first time in Athens, Georgia for their "Apollo 18" tour.  Which coming full circle, was the theme tonight - they started out doing nothing but songs from "Apollo 18," which was amazingly cool!

We said our prayers before all this, and did a little reading from our book.  We probably will finish that book on Monday, and maybe we'll head back to the Discworld.  We'll see.  But for now, it's late and time for some sleep.  Got church in the morning!