Friends in the Neighborhood

So this section of our bushes outside the pool is a little less full than other spots - and now we know why. 

Apparently the deer love to eat our bushes. 

 

All Around the Town

Sunday I preached for Mother's Day at Trinity UMC in Sarasota and then headed for a labyrinth walk in downtown Sarasota. 

I spent a couple of days working from Lakeland. This is my little cubby area in the conference office. 

We had several meetings gettin ready for annual conference in a few weeks, including a walk through at Branscomb Auditorium on Florida Southern College's campus. 

 

Our Favorite High Jumper

The photographer at IMG sent through some cool pictures from an earlier season track meet to Wesley this weekend. Love these so much! 

And at the recent track and field banquet, Wesley's name was on the screen as one of the seniors committed to continue with sports in college (bottom left of the screen). 

And then he was able to go up to the microphone in front of his senior banner and announce where he is going to attend college. 

 

Committed To Compete

Wesley has qualified for Adidas Outdoor Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina in June. He will be competing in Truist Stadium at North Carolina A& T University. 

 We will be hitting the road for Father's Day weekend to watch him compete! 

A Magical Internship

Parker got an acceptance email this week for his next step - he has been accepted to the Disney College Program for the fall! He reports in August and will live at Walt Disney World in the special housing for the college program participants. He will be able to do this while finishing up his last year of MBA classes online. We are so excited for this next step for him! 

 

Commitment Time

As a family, we are pleased and proud to announce that Wesley has committed to attend St. Leo University in San Antonio, Florida, as a member of their 2026-2027 track and field team!!! Go Lions!!!

Nationally only about 5% of the 650,000 male track and field high school athletes in the United States go on to compete in the NCAA (Divisions 1-3). We are thankful to IMG and Coach Iryna for working with him to develop his skills as a student athlete this year. And we are looking forward to seeing what he can do next year under the direction of St. Leo's jumps coach, Emily Olson. 

St. Leo is an NCAA Division Two school in the Sunshine Conference with Florida Southern, Embry Riddle, University of Tampa, Lynn University, Eckerd College, Florida Institute of Technology, Rollins College, Nova Southeastern, Palm Beach Atlantic and Barry University. They frequently attend track and field meets at a few Division One schools like USF and UCF. 

 

Mother's Day Part Two

On Sunday morning I preached at Trinity UMC in Sarasota. And then in the evening the guys took me out for Mother's Day. My gift was a surprise sunset cruise around Siesta Key and Sarasota Bay. It was awesome to hang out in the Intercoastal and see the islands in a way that we usually don't get to. 

The dolphins were out to play a lot which was fun! 

Going under the north Siesta Key bridge. 

The white house on the left was owned by Andre Agassi. 

A view of the Ringling Bridge from Sarasota on the right to Bird Key and Lido Key on the left 

The house on the left was the childhood home of Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman). The house on the right belongs to Urban Meyer.