Door County house

Before leaving for Door County, we first went to church as Adam was preaching that morning.  Vacation would begin after church.  Adam preached on Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to Him,
    and He will make your paths straight.

The Message says it like this:  

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.  

Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track.

AcKNOWledge is the word "yada", to KNOW.  Know God.  Acknowledge Him in all your ways!  Know what He wants and do it.  Talk to Him.  Allow His Spirit to guide you.  Desire to do what He wants.  He will make your paths straight, not necessarily smooth.

Adam mentioned an example of a driver's ed car, where the instructor will have a brake on his side to stop the car if needed! 

(As a mom, when my teens were learning to drive, I didn't have a brake on my side, but oh my, I pressed down hard on the floor like I did!!)  

In our lives we need to give God the wheel (that makes me think of Carrie Underwood's "Jesus take the wheel" - Ha!).  We need for Him to take us where He wants us to go.  But too often we want to slam on the brakes.  "NO!  Not this direction!  I don't want to do that!"  What ways can we trust the Spirit to help us make wise decisions on what He wants for us?  Where He wants for us to go?  Have you ever asked Him for wisdom?  James 1:5-8  

The Bible compares us to sheep, and as sheep we are to follow the Shepherd, the Good Shepherd.  Listen to His voice and follow Him!  

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  John 10:27

* * * *

After church, we had lunch, packed up the van and the car and loaded up for our vacation to Door County.   I rode in the van with Claire, Adam and Jill and the 2 older girls rode with their Papa.

First, a stop at Starbucks - they have this rule that if Adam uses the girls as a sermon illustration, he will buy them a Starbucks.  Well, he used us in his sermon so he got us a coffee!  (the illustration was about how his parents are quick to make decisions and we take our time.  When his parents say "good-bye", they are out the door right away or quick to hang up.  We might say "good-bye" but continue to talk for another half an hour!  One way isn't right and the other wrong, it just shows how we are different.  )

 When we got as far as Green Bay, Adam wanted to drive by their old house for nostalgia sake.  Adam and Jill spent 4 years in GB when they were first married.  Hannah's first home.

 There's our church we worked at.

It was almost 3 hours to Ellison Bay, WI.  Claire and I were having a good time playing and coloring.  Papa was having deep conversations with the older girls.

 A stop at Piggly Wiggly for a few items before heading to the house.

The name of that store cracks me up.  The reason Mr. Saunders chose that name is unknown, although there are theories.  The first Piggly Wiggly was in Memphis, TN in 1916.

In those days, shoppers would present their orders to the clerks who would then gather the goods from the store shelves for the customer.

But Mr. Saunders decided to come up with an unheard-of way to revolutionize the entire grocery shopping experience.  He developed a way for the shoppers to shop for themselves!  He provided shopping baskets, open shelves and check out stands.  It was the beginning of the modern way we shop, although nowadays, people are calling in their orders and grocers are once again picking out the items for the shopper who then drives right up to the store to get their goods!  I've never done that but my kids have!

We arrived at our place for the week.  It was a 4-plex.

I have to admit that my expectations were rather low and we all were pleasantly surprised at how very nice it was!

This place is run by the denomination that Adam and Jill belong to and this place is a place of ministry for pastors, missionaries and their families.  What a wonderful place to stay!  Such kindness of the church for this place of rest!  What a great decision to come here for vacation!

Walleye Festival

We arrived!

Claire promptly had to show us that she had learned to ride her bike without training wheels!

 Look how tall Sophia has gotten!!

 They are adopting a puppy and getting ready.

His name is Kobi.  From the Japanese word Yorokobi, 

which means Joy!  What JOY this puppy would soon be!

 After eating grilled brats, we went to Lakeside Park to see Hannah who was doing face painting as a youth group fundraiser for Walleye Weekend, Fond du Lac's largest free family festival with lots of activities and concessions.


Center of this weekend is a fishing tournament for walleye. They say the Mercury National fishing tournament is like the Daytona 500 of walleye fishing tournaments!  About 300 2-man boats are on Lake Winnebago for this thing!  Have to admit I know nothing about fishing and I don't even know what a walleye looks like.  So I looked it up.  It is also called a yellow pike and is native to Canada and the northern states.  Fond du lac has lots of fishing events, so it's rather ironic that our son-in-law dislikes fish - and that is putting it mildly!

As we were driving there, we saw a fire engine so we pulled off to the side of the road.  Although the lights were flashing, the siren wasn't going and it sure wasn't zooming down the road.  Curious thing...

It ended up that it was just the beginning of a procession for a parade!

From the car window we watched lots and lots and lots of motorcyclists pass by.

After they passed (which took quite a while!), Adam made a right hand turn to go to the park.  But we got stopped again, but this time because the parade was coming around on the other side.  Adam said he would park the car after the parade finished and told us to go on to the festival.  We got to the street just as the parade was passing by again! 

 Just a little bit NOISY!

Hanna  was painting faces.

Adam found us and we went on to see what else there was.

Jill stayed home to finish getting ready for our trip to Door County the next day.  Tomorrow was the beginning of our vacation!