February 1 at Altitude

Thursday:  Kaity and I drove over to Altitude at our usual time. Shortly after we arrived, a few Kaity's friends came--Allen, Alex, and Isaac. PLUS, Kenzie and Harper showed up. Last, but not least, AYDEN arrived! This group of kids play and play and PLAY together. It's a riot to watch. We were missing one of our regulars--Blueberry--and he never did come. 

The group played a few rounds of "tag" and then switched to "cops & robbers". I was designated the jail keeper. Problem? Nobody stayed locked up! They were usually arrested for some slight infraction, hands were put behind their backs, fake cuffs were applied, and the criminal was read his rights: "You have the right to remain silent ... " etc. Alex, who was in lock-up, looked at me and said: "I plead the FIFTH!" From that point on, that was everyone's favorite line. 

I decided that since I was the designated jail keeper, I needed to take mug shots of all the arrestees which cracked them up). Here are a few of the arrested (and future escapees):

Alex: "I plead the fifth!"

Kenzie, cracking up at me taking her picture

Kaity, sweating to death!

I must say that these kids play ROUGH! A few of them are assigned as the "COPS" and the others are the robbers who have held up banks (!), shop lifted (!), etc. and they always resist arrest. They keep this game up until one of them gets a little ruffled from being tackled down or sat on or thrown from a platform. I try to keep a watch and simmer down the violence (!!), but these guys mean business. 

We left Altitude at closing time (8PM) and drove back to Jesse's. Kaity and I had a sad conversation on the way home (that I will not disclose on this blog); but it gave me much to pray about in the coming weeks and months. There is nothing I can do to change Kaity's situation or her fears for the future; but I encouraged Kaity to talk to Jesus about all of these hurts in her heart--because no one loves her or her family more than HE does.