Saturday, July 28, 2012

All in the Week

We are just home from our denomination's family conference, which happens every 4 years. Michael and I haven't been in 12 years so it was a wonderful chance to catch up with so many friends, especially the couples we went to seminary with and I haven't seen in 11 years!!!


Can't be gone a week without the proper essentials -- plenty of knitting, plenty of reading, and of course plenty of tea and accessories. We stayed in dorms at a college campus. We were happy to have a suite of 4 bedrooms and one main room with a huge bathroom.


Our days consisted of sessions for the adults, classes for the kids, free time, meals, entertainment and sports. The kids were certainly tired out!!! 


David celebrated his 6th birthday while we were gone. We tried to make it special for him.


I didn't take many pictures of the large gatherings (2,600 in attendance). One of the loveliest things about the conference was the singing. Our denomination sings the Psalms, acapella. This sounds quite amazing with thousands of voices, all in 4-part harmony. 

One of the afternoon optional entertainments was a piano/flute concert with narration. It was beautiful! Our friend, Kathy, played the flute. In all the years we've known her I never had the chance to actually hear her. Wow! I had no idea the flute could be played so expertly nor in such a varied way. Incredible! Her playing was true art.


Another friend played his bagpipes for us one evening.


We gathered a few people to enjoy cupcakes on David's birthday. This made it seem like a celebration.


David was pretty excited!


 We are home now and enjoying the company of a friend from Scotland -- perfect to have someone from Britain here to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics with! Favorite part: Mr. Bean on the synthesizer! That was terrific! I did think the Queen's entrance was quite original, but also felt badly that she felt she had to stoop to give permission for that.


Well, the memories of this past week will last a long time. Fellowship is such a beautiful gift.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The conference sounds really interesting and worthwhile. How interesting that you had a Scottish friend there with you. Is that him playing the pipes? Your Psalm-singing sounds like the Free Church in Scotland. I enjoyed the Olympics opening ceremony too. Most people here are impressed with the Queen's sense of humour for playing along.

Anonymous said...

Your lovely children ... but they grow up too fast. The birthday boy looks so sweet and unaffected! Enjoy them while they are young .. and it willbe nice to have such photos to look back on!

HeatherMavis said...

The 143rd year of camp meeting was just concluded yesterday here at Camp Faithful in Southington CT.
I am curious , what denomination are you with? I'd lve to hear your Psalm singing.