missed opportunities

I have missed several opportunities lately to get great pictures.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, the children at Hope UMC (where we go to church) put on a Fall Fun Feast where we had to guess what the menu was based on clues, and we had to put the clues in order of what we wanted. We managed to do pretty well, but one of the tables ended up having their dessert first! Lori (our pastor's wife) cooked some darn good food for us, and she coordinated the kids to do a great job with serving the meal and providing some fun entertainment. I especially wish I could have taken a picture of the kids performing a puppet show!

Yesterday, I forgot my camera again when Eric and I helped with the Outreach Department's Christmas party for the children in the community. (If any of you send Christmas gifts for kids at Henderson Settlement, this is where many of them get handed out.) The gym was full of Christmas gifts, all divided up by age and gender, and once the kids lined up to get them, it was WILD! I wish I could have got some shots of that!

And then I forgot my camera AGAIN last night when we went to a concert at the Frakes Elementary School. The concert was a fundraiser for a playground for the school. There were two bands that played: S&S Express and The Charlie Bays Unit. They were both REALLY enjoyable, so we're looking forward to another bluegrass concert that they're going to have in January. (Maybe I'll remember the camera then...).

This last one is the kicker, though. Eric and I went for a hike to day with Mark (the executive director of the Settlement) and Mike (the pastor of Hope UMC). There is a trail that goes through Settlement property, and I purposely didn't bring the camera 'cause I didn't feel like carrying it. We started behind the emergency housing, and we heard that we would end up near the reservoir that supplies water to the greenhouses. We hiked up to a ridge, and then we didn't see any more trail markers, so we ended up king of forging our own trail. When we ended up at the reservoir, we were all pretty worn out and warm. Somehow the topic of swimming in the pond came up, and Mike said to Eric, "I'll do it if you do it." Well, next thing you know, they were in the pond! They didn't stay in too long (after all, it IS December), but it was long enough that I could have had a hilarious picture of them, but alas and alack, I didn't have it with me. But we had a good time and a good laugh.