Winner, Winner!

Winner, Winner! September 8, 2018

Filed under: Simply Me — Amy Scott @ 10:47 am

All summer long we’ve been working hard at the Summer Family Challenge that our church sponsored. We had a booklet packed full of challenges to have fun together has a family. We made homemade pizza, lemonade, popsicles. We had picnics, went bowling, flew a kite, made a sand castle, visited parks and the zoo. We memorized passages of scripture, prayed together and helped out around our community. We had a blast doing it! Each challenge had points attached to it. We racked up the points and secretly won the challenge! However, there is the fine print of employees not being eligible for prizes. At the beginning of the summer, I told the boys even though we couldn’t officially win, if we placed in the top three then we would celebrate as family with something extra special. I’m happy to say we did come in first so the boys were given a few options for how we might mark the occasion. We offered the Giant Wheel in Seattle, a MAX train ride in Portland or a toy. The boys chose the MAX ride because it’s been a life long dream for them. Since they picked the cheapest option (the ride cost us $5), we offered to get them a toy as well.

We made it down to Portland yesterday and hopped on the MAX right off the bat. Owen enjoyed the speed of the train and looking out the window. We happily rode to our destination – the airport! We figured that riding the short ride from our shopping center to the airport would be the “safest” MAX experience we could give them. All the passengers were heading to the airport with a purpose. We arrived at the airport and went inside to have a cake pop from Starbucks. Then it was back on the MAX to go shopping. We had lunch at IKEA and after that the boys got to pick out a toy at Target. There was a bit of drama coming up with what toys to get. After the drama Owen ended up with a glow in the dark Thomas track set and Graham ended up with a garbage truck that was originally what Owen had picked.

We’re not really broadcasting with our church family that we won the Summer Family Challenge, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t rewarded well. It was great to spend the day together as a family – especially right before a busy season (hunting season, man camp, staff retreat – all coming in the next few weeks). The boys worked hard to succeed with the challenges. The Summer Family Challenge was the perfect way for us to stay busy, have fun and an invest in our family. We can’t wait to do it again next summer!