Driving to the Dells, part 2

We drove up to Wisconsin a couple of days before the family vacaation at the Dells.   We were there for Claire's birthday.

We took Claire to Mix It Up Bakery.

Al got a big chunky square donut!

Next we stopped by the coffee shop where Hannah was working that morning.

Thank you, Hannah for the delicious coffees!

The next stop was at church where a young people's tournament was going on.

Adam, Sophia, Hannah and several others from their church are going to Romania to serve at a camp ministry there. The Romania team was serving up cold coffee espressos and then for lunch they were grilling hamburgers to raise money for the trip.

Sophie was also watching a little boy while his mommy was playing volleyball.

We stopped at Panera for a birthday lunch.

In the afternoon, Papa did some house projects.

They were having some issues with the mailbox.  Papa to the rescue.

"Serve one another humbly in love."  Galatians 5:13

Jill took Claire to Appleton to pick up a new candy that was being debuted that very day in certain locations.  Joyride is Ryan Trahan's candy (I don't know who that is).

For dinner, we had a little celebration for Claire.  Spaghetti, because that's her favorite.  Then we had leftover cake from a party she had had with friends earlier in the week.

She was sooooo excited for the gift her parents gave her!  She would have to wait for other gifts until we had a tri-celebration at the Dells for Tenley, Claire and me.  

My mother also had a June birthday.  If she'd lived, she would have been 98 this year!  Well, she IS still alive, but not on earth time any more.  "He who believes in Me has eternal life."  John 6:47

After the party, we went downstairs for some game time.

The older girls had purchased some old LIFE magazines for decorating an escape room they work at and they wanted to show them to us.  When I was a little girl, our family had LIFE magazines delivered to our home in Japan.  I loved looking at those big colorful pages!  What a kick to see these!  

We both remembered this week!  Our family was in America getting ready to return to Japan.  We were at my grandma's house in Ohio and watched the moon landing on the old black and white tv.

An advertizement from the old days.  Did we all believe this?  Perhaps it become the time we all started getting obese.  A candy bar before dinner?  Sure, why not!  Ha!

This one is from the week Al was born!

On Sunday morning, we went to church.

Hannah was on the worship team.  I love her singing!  Praise to Him.

There was a lady taking photos for Father's Day.

After church, we ate some leftovers for lunch to clean out the fridge and packed up our cars.  Allen and I headed out for Wisconsin Dells for our family vacation.  Jill's family followed shortly after.

I LOVE to see old architecture on our travels!!

This is an unusual plant.  What is it?

Where was Maps taking us??

We ended up on back roads in Amish country.

Jill texted "We've caught up with the Amish too!"

Meanwhile - the rest of the family was coming too.

Josh's family driving from Arkansas.

(Notice that these kids all have a weighted dinosaur.)

Josh's made a stop at the Cheesecake Factory!

Mindy's were flying from Denver to Madison.

Mama is relaxed.

Daddy is not so relaxed - keeping little ones entertained.

(On the way home, they would flip and Mindy would be with the girls.)

On the way from Madison airport to the Dells, the little ones fell asleep.

We followed each other on Life 360.

Meeting up!

This would be our home for the next few days.

The teens would sleep in the "treehouse".

Heading to Wisconsin Dells. Day 1

After some months of planning, the day had finally arrived for us to go on our family vacation.  Mindy sent me a picture of one the girls' new swimming suits.

The day before we were going to leave, I watered the flowers around the house and had the sprinklers going on the grass.   I printed out a "chore" sheet for our neighbor kids who agreed to water the plants and feed our orioles.

A storm rolled through the night before we left, which added extra moisture.

See the wheat field?  They had just begun harvesting when we left.  With the rain, they would have to wait to cut more until it dried out.

We have such good memories of harvest when the kids were little.  We would go out to help Allen's parents each summer.  

I'd help Mom Graber make meals that we'd take out to the fields.  There is just something so special about eating out there!

I have digressed from the original post....going to Wisconsin Dells for our family vacation. 

We noticed that the ponds along the way had filled up due to recent rains.  Some ponds had become bone dry with the drought we've had.

Just south of Des Moines, we stopped to have a picnic lunch.

I talked with this young mother who was travelling alone with her 3 year old.  They had come from Wisconsin and were headed to Kansas, just opposite us.  This little boy was enjoying running around and out of his car seat!

We pulled into a gas station at Highway 330 on the edge of Des Moines.  My car holds 18 gallons and Al filled it with 17.99 gallons!!  We knew we were low, but didn't realize how low!  We thought we had about 30 more miles.  Usually we never let it get below 1/4 tank.  It would not have been fun to run out on the bypass around Des Moines!

Twelve hours later, we pulled into the kids' place.  Of course I had a presentation to give to Jill!  She won the Graber March Madness trophy and since I won it last year, I needed to pass it on!