Socializing, a new coffee table and the Sturgeon festival

Saturday morning, Claire was showing us that she loves mazes, so Papa made one for her to accomplish.

Sophia showed us how tall she had gotten! 

 Jill and I went to a ladies' get-together.  Several ladies from church were having a meet and greet at the Peterson's home. ( Karla P. has a friend in California who goes to church with a dear friend of mine!  Small world!)

 These ladies were so very friendly and easy to talk with!

 I have to share this recipe with you!  It is called Crispy Snack.  By Karla

1 box Crispix cereal
2 cup mixed nuts or any variation
Place in brown grocery bag.

1 cup butter
2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Karo syrup
Boil for 2 minutes.
Add 1/2 t. baking soda.  Boil until it thickens and bubbles up.

Pour over cereal in the bag.  Shake.  Microwave 2 minutes.
Shake and microwave another 2 minutes.  Shake and spread on wax paper on a cookie sheet.

It was soooo good!  Karla sent it home with us.  Jill, if you were wondering what happened to the rest of it, Adam gave it to us to take on the car ride home!

While Jill and I were having such fun socializing, Sophia and Allen were putting together a coffee table for Jill.

After lunch, we played charades.

Then while Jill stayed home to fix dinner, and Hannah was resting for the play that night, the rest of us went downtown to the Sturgeon festival.  We missed out on the dog sled run.  I think that would be fun!  Maybe next year.  Sophia did NOT want us to drive out on the frozen lake like we did last year. 

Here are some of the piers on the lake.  All the boats are stored away until next spring.



But we did see the

 Curling competition.  It doesn't make sense to me.

 We went to the museum where they were displaying sturgeon.

(and where it was warm!)

Time to go home. We were cold and ready for good home-made chili and corn bread!
Claire enjoyed Papa and daddy pulling her on the slick sidewalk. 

 And then I saw this in the downtown district!

Carry Nation is from Kansas!  She entered the temperance movement in 1890, when a US Supreme Court decision in favor of the importation and sale of liquor in “original packages” from other states weakened the prohibition laws of Kansas, where she was living. In her view, the illegality of the saloons flourishing in that state meant that anyone could destroy them with impunity.  Alone or accompanied by hymn-singing women, Nation, who was typically dressed in stark black-and-white clothing, would march into a saloon and proceed to sing, pray, hurl biblical-sounding language, and smash the bar fixtures and stock with a hatchet. At one point, her fervor led her to invade the governor’s chambers at Topeka.  She was jailed many times, paying her fines from lecture tour fees and sales of souvenir hatchets, at times earning as much as $300 per week.  She herself survived numerous physical assaults.  

I could see her breaking into a bar here.  This state sure likes their drinks!  But obviously, the bar is still in operation, so Carry didn't do much good here.

Going Up

I'd been home less than a week and it was time once again to head back up to Wisconsin.  This trip had been planned for some time, ever since Hannah got a lead role in the play, "Aladdin".  Of course, you just do what you have to do as a grandparent.  What you WANT to do!  Even if it means driving 12 hours!  We thank the Lord that we are healthy enough to be traveling as we do.

Usually when going to Wisconsin, we leave before the sun is up.  But, we had a stop to make in Hillsboro to pick up some Dale's sausage and the grocers did not open until 8.

This is such a sweet, little town.  Sure do miss having our kids living there!

The kids fell in love with Dale's sausage when they lived here and we try to take some to them when we go up.  If you've never had rope sausage like this, you have to try it!  They do sell it in Wichita at a couple of places too.

Leaving Hillsboro, we drove through some Flinthill country.  Kansas is so beautiful!!

As we were driving, I noticed the car slowly veering off to the left onto the shoulder.  "Al!  Are you asleep?"  Yup.   That was happening.  When we got to KC, we stopped for some coffee.

Al needed a caffeine fix.

Iowa had had an ice storm the day before and we came across an overturned semi and several cars in the ditches.  One had slid down a deep ravine.  That had to be scary!

We were glad we were driving Friday instead of the day before!

We were grateful for His hand on us and for safety in traveling.

Crossing the Mississippi into -

It was getting dark when we drove by our landmark barn.

We arrived at the kids' by 8:00.  They were all at the Friday night performance of "Aladdin".  We unpacked and it wasn't long before they arrived home.  We were excited for the weekend!