50th Anniversary for Central Christian Church of the East Valley!!

What a momentous occasion! Our church has reached its 50th anniversary with a history of perpetual blessings to reflect upon. We are proud to be members of such a God-centered, Mission-oriented, and loving-focused church. I'd like to brag about what God has done in Central because we have some BIG DEALS to celebrate! Central is 50 years old and has NEVER experienced a church split. Central began with 67 members in 1959 and is now home to 7 - 8,000 people every weekend! And perhaps the most amazing statistic - Over the course of Central's 50 years, it has only had FOUR senior pastors. This is phenomenal and certainly something to celebrate!!

So today Central had its big 50th Anniversary Party, and we were so happy to celebrate with them!

Come on....

Central's first senior pastor
Central's original church building

The party was segmented into decades beginning with the 50's

Isaac made a fast friend in the toddler jumping gym

This. Is. AWESOME!!!

my handsome boy...

Central's second senior pastor and on to the 60's and 70's...

The Price is Right!! Everybody's a winner!

Friends - Jaimie and me

Cool car, but I don't think we could get a carseat in there. Shucks!

I totally wanted to do this, but seeing that the tables were filled with kiddos, I didn't want to admit it .... I've always wanted a pet rock!!

So much fun, so little time!!

The air was filled with the delighted screams of children - it was great!

Ode to M.A.S.H.

Herbie, you came back!

Central's third senior pastor, and on to the 80's and 90's...

Classic, just classic.

Never did ride that bull named Fu Man Chu... But I bet I could have done it!

And a doh-see-doh - Isaac really enjoyed this musc. He was dancing in his stroller seat! We left abruptly after that... (j/k)

Brothers - Kevin & Brian "Pretend to like each other and smile!!!"

Central's fourth and current pastor, which leads us to the 21st century...

That bunjee jumping thing looked really cool, but we were too late. So I lived vicariously through that jumping girl and imagined what it would have been like...

(L-R) Hanna, Dillan, Jake, Jaimie and Brian. Let's go party!

And since this was so fun, we circled back to the toddler jumper, Isaac's fave.

After watching enough of the other kids jumping and running around, Isaac worked up enough confidence to give it a try himself. It helped that we ended up having the thing to ourselves after a bit!

Central today - the Mesa campus

And the Gilbert campus

Happy Anniversary, Central!! May the next 50 years be just as fruitful and glorifying to God!

Jump, Isaac, Jump!

Here's a video of Isaac and his jumping skills... If you listen carefully you will hear him say "Uh-oh" when he topples over. Too cute! We just love watching him enjoy himself!

Schnepf Farms

Today was fun! We went to the notably popular Schnepf Farms, and I left wondering why we haven't done this before!!

feeling festive...

big enough for a shoulder ride now!


At the petting zoo, Isaac was enthralled with all of the farm animals! We saw goats...

...sheep...

... chickens and roosters ...

... pigs ...

and then he found a friend to fit his size...

... and liked her very much.

Next we went on the 1912 Carousel. Isaac chose the doggie to ride on and was pretty happy about his choice...

... until the docile doggie start moving up and down as the world began to spin! So after that ride we headed on to the pumpkin patch to let Isaac explore for a bit to shake off that experience.

"Dat!"

so many pumpkins to choose from!

aah, this is the one

It was a tough job to get Isaac to smile for any of the pictures, so we resorted to tickling!

Kevin's brother Brian is in town and was behind many of the pictures until I pulled him out for a snapshot.

Mmmmm, my favorite - Time for some sweet and salty kettle corn!

We didn't get to ride the train this time, but that didn't stop us from watching it as it rustled by.

After trying a short turn in the corn maze, we had our grand finale - the swings! Brian held onto Isaac while Kevin and I flew around for a spin. I felt like a kid again!

There was a distinct state fair feel to the place as we trekked around to see the many activities. As we were running out of daylight, we didn't get to see everything. But we had a good time nonetheless! I guess we'll just have to come back...