A short visit

We only had 2 1/2 days with the kids in Wisconsin but we packed it in!  Hannah and Sophia were going to switch rooms but wanted to paint the rooms so we tackled that!

Hannah's room became Sophia's.  It was painted a mint green.

Even Claire helped!

By the end of the day, it was finished!

The next day, Sophia's room became Hannah's.  Hannah chose a gray steel.

When Claire got bored with painting, she had her toys to play with.  From the first, we've asked Claire if she wouldn't like to paint her room pink.  But no, she likes the green.

Jill also did some re-decorating.

The big excitement was the baby doves on the porch that were getting ready to fly off and leave the nest!  The doves had made a nest in the hanging ferns on the porch.

 The girls named them Charlie and Shuanda.

"Fly, babies, fly!  You can do this!  Every bird does!"

In between painting and bird watching, we took Claire to swimming lessons and the park.

She was the youngest in her group, and learned so much!  Her turn to jump in!

We ate at Gilles Frozen Custard.  

Adam came over his lunch hour and joined us.

 A quick shopping trip.

The older two are taking stringed instrument lessons and played some for us.  Hannah's teacher is a Mrs. Schroeder.  A very Mennonite name!  They will have to play the "Mennonite Game" and figure out some connections!

 Outdoor grilling

A little rest after a couple hard days' labor

We told everyone goodbye that night as we would be up and out the door around 5 am.

Driving across Wisconsin

We left La Crosse the next morning after the wedding.

Look at this house! 4 stories.  I'd sure like to tour through it!

This part of Wisconsin is rather hilly.

We took Highway 90 across to Tomah and connected with Highway 21.  90 is a 4-lane road and we usually take 2-lane when we are "adventuring", but as we had never been on this road before, we decided it was ok.  

You have to wait on trains sometimes on 2-lane roads.

We are used to that, living in a railroad town ourselves.

What a pretty church!  Love the bell tower!

We know someone by that name!

I wish we could grow tall evergreens like this in Kansas!

Historic marker

"Stop!   We have to see this!!"

Al turned around and we got out to investigate.

There were no signs at all, but we found out it is Shiprock wayside.  Evidently, someone thought it looked like a ship.  It is located on Highway 21 close to Friendship.

We are in Wisconsin, for sure.

An unusual cloud formation!

A rock silo little house?

The kids texted and wanted to know where we were.  They expected us a lot earlier in the day I think, but our adventures were taking a little longer than we thought.

Adam warned us not to take the road through Rosendale, Wisconsin.  It has a bit of a reputation for giving out LOTS of speeding tickets!

An investigation showed that it had an average of 1,714 tickets a year. To put that into perspective, Green Bay, which is 100 times larger than Rosendale, issued an average 1,542 speeding tickets per year over that same period.

The gas station even sells these t-shirts!















So we detoured and kept on our trip and got to the kid's house by 2:30, rather than at noon.

La Crosse - summer wedding

Time for a wedding on the river!

Isn't it just beautiful?!

The Scripture passages shared were from Romans 12:9-18.  Love must be sincere.  A good reminder to those of us who have been married 40 plus years even, that we need to continue to show love in action.

Also from 1 Corinthians 13.

Once someone said you should insert your name :   Debby is patient.  Debby is kind.  She does not envy.  She does not boast and is not proud.....  Oh my, how I fail!!  I am so glad that God's love for me, His acceptance of me is not determined by the way I act.   Not that we don't try!  But ONLY Christ is perfect!

"This is the only work God wants from you: 

                     Believe in the One He has sent." John 6

The bride and groom greeted each person as rows were dismissed.  I love that!

While the wedding party took pictures, we had hors d'oeuvres and drooled at the dessert table!   (When I first came to the States, I had no clue how to pronounce that word .  "Horz - de- vorz"?  I can still hear the laughter!  Ha!!  Luckily I can laugh about it too!)

And look at this cake!!

Best wishes to you!