China and the Summer

Nobody else wants to post about their exciting summers, so I am back. Welcome to my presence!

Today I am going to discuss Internet control in China and its effect on the international scene.

Ever since the beginning of the Internet, China's government has taken strides to censor sensitive content from the Internet. And now I will stop talking about the topic. I just wanted to see who my most diligent readers were and if they really cared about my writing enough to keep reading. If you are still proceeding at this point, good for you! Either you saw the pictures below and knew something worthwhile was coming, or I will have to draw out the educational content for a longer paragraph next time. ;)

Believe it or not, that is the topic of my eleven-page research paper for International Relations, and I just finished the first draft this morning. My class ends in another week, but the paper is due Monday. And that has been my life this week. That should be my life right now, but I am obviously procrastinating further progress. I decided it is the weekend and I am sick of thinking about international issues.

Now on to more exciting things: a visual recap of this summer's events!

Father/Son Camp-out 2013 at the Fellowship Center. They really "rough" it. This is supper.

Baseball

Splitting wood

Father's Day

Jesse's gifts (He is the only one who cares enough to give Dad gifts. Thankfully we have at least one compassionate child in this family.) 

Dad's new toy from Mom. You can see her nervous anticipation of Dad's reaction in this picture. Obviously everyone else was pretty enthralled.  

Lanz Construction came and replaced the door in the basement!

The boys sat watching in their pajamas and Jesse ate his Fruit Loops in a lovely location.

Billy got his braces off at the beginning of this month! He was pretty excited. :) These are the after and before pictures. Although his teeth look great, I think the rest of him saw more change over the two years.

Justin has been mixing up and freezing cookie dough balls lately. He always wonders why he puts four dozen balls in the freezer and there are only one dozen remaining when he takes them out to bake them. I don't wonder.

Mom's awesome Fourth of July strawberry creations. They are even tastier than they look! :)

Strawberries, white almond bark, and blue sugar sprinkles.

BREAKING NEWS!! Alyssa came back for an overnight visit on July 4th! It was so exciting to have here with us, if only for a short time! :)

MORE EXCITEMENT!! The Steffen Clan (age 20 and under) came for the Fourth!

Other Awkward Family Photos

The forces inside my head must be so strong that they pull in everyone else's heads when they get too close.

Jesse was just showing Mom the height of his newest Lego tower. Nobody is quite sure what was going through Stephanie's head.

Enough about my head. What's this?
Flexibility stunt gone wrong.

And distorted heads on twisted bodies pretty much covers life through today, unless you wish to delve into a fascinating discussion on Internet regulation in China. I will spare you the misery. Have a good weekend!