If you like pictures, you'll love this one!

WARNING: This is not a very creative blog. I don't have clever words today and I'm not going to do much but fill you in on some recent happenings. BUT, if you like pictures, then you'll love this one!

Toby turned 13 on the 19th of June. He had counted the days since May and was excited for the celebration--except for one thing.

Celebrating 13 years of our first born. He fills our days with joy and brings so much to our lives.

Gracious Toby. Charles stopped by to "say hi" and carried out our  David Family tradition of drenching the birthday person on their special day. This was Toby's first of three "birthday drenchings" The drenchings were the dreaded, "one thing."

Here's the second and most thorough soaking! Toby was such a great sport. He knew they had buckets and basins hiding around the compound, but he allowed himself to be "invited" over to David Family late afternoon to "see something." He smile and laughed and the kids enjoyed "blessing" him. Unfortunately, the final drenching was after dark and I didn't manage to get a photo!

One of his favorite gifts was a kit of inventions. He set to work on it immediately and "invented" a telegraph.

His other favorite gift! We found Dr. Pepper in Jinja back in May and bought 5 cans for his upcoming birthday. He'd asked for them when we were in Jinja, but we told him maybe another time. We had someone else buy them for us, so he was completely surprised!

Hanging out by the pool. We took him into Kampala for swimming and the movies, ("Captain America 2")

So, Toby is 13 and still a great big brother, helpful son and great friend to many. We are very thankful to God for blessing us with Toby!

Not too long after Toby's birthday we had to say good-bye again to Aunt Ketty. In this photo we've got our matching "yaya" shirts on. They were given to me free at the Yaya Center Mall when I was in Nairobi with Ketty in May. We vowed to take a photo together, but it took us a month to get it done! For a very recent update on her progress, visit Kimberly White's blog www.choosingtoliveanundauntedlife.blogspot.com

Last weekend we visited Aziza at her secondary school. The boarding schools the children attend for upper level secondary school hold visitation days a couple of times a year for the parents. To see her joy as she ran to meet us almost made me cry. She thought no one was coming to visit her and when she heard her name over the loud speaker, she ran out of her dormitory and down the hill to see us!

Aziza and Mabel laugh together. Mabel said she HAD to visit Aziza because when she was in secondary school Aziza visited her at every visitation day. It is an important memory and she wanted to bless the one who had blessed her!

Joy between mother and daughter.

Aziza was so pleased to show us around her school.

We sat and had some snacks together while catching up.

Before leaving for visitation day, we hosted Bogere for lunch. It was his 23rd birthday and after filling his stomach with good food and cake, we also drenched him in honor of his special day!

We had arranged a "signal" with David Family so they all came running at once and thoroughly soaked Bogy!

We hosted the 4th of July party at our house for the western staff. Geoff and Jay took care of the BBQ, the McFarland's, freshly back from the U.S., made sure everyone enjoyed some games, and Hannah did a great job of planning, organizing and decorating for the event. 

Sharing stories at the BBQ

Wesley and Nora were quite inseparable for most of the party.

Getting a chance to laugh and visit with each other was the best part!

Kevin and Kakande--partners for the 3-legged race. Kakande was SOOO excited!

Nico and Nate, brothers who stuck together even after the 3-legged race! 

The back to back race brought out the most creativity! Some ran sideways,  some with one moving forward and one moving backward, and Toby's partner just simply picked him up on his back and carried Toby across the finish line!

The little girls loved the flags! Beth created the garland hanging in the back of this photo.

This past weekend Geoff and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary with a night out in Jinja. Sunday we visited Nabukeera at her visitation day, and then traveled onto Entebbe where we picked up Uncle Josh Craner from the airport! It was a weekend full of travel ending last night when we took Josh to his temporary quarters near Johnathan Family. The Johnathan kids rushed to meet him and we drove away as he was still hugging and greeting them all!

Geoff's travels aren't over yet, though, as he left this morning at 4 a.m. for Musana camps. He and two of our young adults arrived at 8 a.m. to begin learning the "R.O.P.E.S." from some Kenyans.  R.O.P.E.S. is "Rights of Passage Experiences" for adolescents. The program has been successfully carried out in Kenya for many years and we will be gleaning from their expertise as we seek to sharpen our approach in assisting our young men and women toward maturity. He joined the rest of his CSD staff who traveled yesterday to the campsite. 

Meanwhile, back at the Britton Ranch, we are again out of water (and have been since May). Our cistern is currently under construction with a finish date of next week. Being that we are in the middle of the dry season, we are not sure we will be able to fill the cistern once it's finished, but we will at least  try to find enough water to alleviate some of the many trips we've been making to the bore hole and water tower.

one of the workers is seen here mixing cement

In an effort to lighten the "haul water" load, Geoff installed an ultraviolet light water purification set up. It took awhile to get some kinks worked out, but it is functioning well now. Eventually we will build a cabinet around the components leaving only the tap exposed.

The boys fill this only twice a week. From this container water flows through a pipe into the house and through the ultraviolet filter system.

This is the set up on the inside of the house. 

The water filter addition was his major project he completed during his leave from work last week. Geoff does not consider "doing nothing" as rest. If he tried to do nothing it would stress him out. So, he chooses projects to complete and in so doing, he rests. I'm thankful for the "week off projects" of the past few years: kitchen tiling, house painting, plumbing repairs, furniture additions, tire swings, bat removal and an outdoor BBQ to name a few.

That's it for now. Hopefully, my creativity will return soon!