Devin, our oldest son, graduated with honors from Fairview High School on Friday night. I’ve attended many graduation ceremonies as a teacher and youth minister, but this was my first as a parent—and it was wonderful.

My brother, Ted, and his wife came, and all of Devin’s grandparents, as well—so we just made a whole weekend of it. Christine’s job has its perks, and this was one of them: We were able to house several family members out at camp in one of the lodges, which also became a terrific meeting place for parties on Saturday.

We’d been trying to find just the right time for a dedication service for our youngest daughter, Bethany. Since we were having all of these folks coming in, it just made sense to do that this weekend. So we held a brief service in one of the outdoor chapels at Cedar Crest, during which a few of our closest friends—including Bethany’s godparents—joined us to celebrate Bethany.

We followed that with a catered lunch in the lodge celebrating both Bethany’s dedication and Devin’s graduation. We then wrapped those two things up around 2:00, and in came some of Nikki’s friends for an early birthday party. Nikki will be nine in a couple of weeks, but our summers are so busy now that having the party early seemed a good thing, especially since all of the family was there anyway.

All in all, I think this has been one of the best weekends of my life.