I have to admit that sometimes my decision making gets clouded by my desire to do something NOW.

Being Kirk is self-employed, and we home-school the kiddos we thought that a mini-vacation during the work-week would be fun.  We thought it would be even more fun if we surprised the kids.  There is a moderate sized indoor waterpark just under two hours from us in Duluth, Minnesota.  So, I dutifully packed up all of our things without the kids knowing.  I bought some extra snacks and found everyone’s flip flops and swimsuits.  I had most everything ready to go the night before we were going to leave.

Then I started to feel unwell.  I told myself that it was just going to pass, but it happened that both Cade and I were sick during the night.  Kirk cancelled our reservations during the night.

Then the sun rose and the birds chirped and both Cade and I felt better.  I was packed up and why shouldn’t we go?  Ok, so Ella was a little peaked…but she was already perking up from a couple of hours ago.  So, we piled all of our things into the van and off we went.

It was fun.  The kids were guessing where we were going and we kept them wondering.

We arrived and had fun in the waterpark right when we got there.  (I always love pictures with Cade without his glasses.  We so rarely see him without them.  Glasses aren’t allowed down the waterslides so that’s the only reason he doesn’t have them on here).

A handsome boy!

Sawyer preferred watching from his stroller rather than being in the water.

Hanging out with Ella

Then the following morning, Addie came into our room, and we found out that she needed a visit to the bathroom.  Needless to say, Kirk went out to go buy pull-ups, as underwear wasn’t cutting it for her…I guess it’s better than puking!  She stayed out of the water for the day.

Happy Birthday, Ella!

It was Ella’s birthday that day so we went out to dinner.  She drank some raspberry soda with her supper and was given some ice cream with a candle.  We sang to her.  Happy Birthday to my beautiful 6 year old!

Not quite tall enough

Well, at about 2 in the morning Kirk heard something in the next room.  That raspberry soda turned an almost fluorescent green when mixed with stomach acid.  Yum!  Ella had also been sharing a bed with Cade and Cade sleeps through ANYTHING…enough said.  Kirk and I cleaned up which took over an hour.  It was at this point that we thought it may be best to stop and pray together (at 2am).  I know, we’re really quick.  It was at this point that all we could do was laugh.

So, we were anticipating having our “free” breakfast and exiting quickly the next morning.  ”Funny” thing was is that Duluth was having a blizzard.  Now we are native to Minnesota and snow doesn’t scare us, but the wind was crazy and 10-14 inches is a lot, even for Duluth.  So, our “mini-vacation” was extended with everyone else in the hotel.  Yea, us!  (Is there anything worse than being sick when you aren’t home??)

A picture from our hotel window just a little while into the storm

Waves coming on the shore from Lake Superior

Naturally, we were running short on clothes…especially with all of our “incidents”.  Well, I saw a sign for “guest laundry” so this wouldn’t be a problem.  Well, think again…the washer was “temporarily out of order”.  So, off I went to the “gift shop” to get 1 load worth of Tide for $2.50.  Our solution…the bathtub.  We washed stuffed Snoopy and all.

Doing laundry the old fashioned way

At this point, everything was almost humorous.  We had passed the point of frustration a while ago, and I found myself being thankful that we had a safe place to stay and for modern conveniences like clean running water, washing machines, and dryers.  Do you know how long it takes to hand wring a load of laundry?

All this to say that we probably should have waited to go to the waterpark.  In the end though, God still blessed us with fun family time and stories to share:).

Blessings to your family,

I don’t know where I first read about the “prayer jar” idea, but it is something that we used to do when the kids were quite a bit younger.

We want a way for our family to pray specifically for people in our lives, but sometimes it feels overwhelming as there are so many people.  So, we are once again bringing out our “prayer jar”.

We just went through and listed every person within our immediate and extended family and friends as well as major leaders in our church and country.  Then we put their names on some tickets that I had from when I was teaching elementary school and put them in a jar.  Every night we pick a ticket out and pray for that person.  When we get through all the tickets we’ll stick them back in the jar and do it all again.

What do you do to pray for the people in your life?

Blessings to your family,

I’m also joining Women Living Well Wednesday Link-up.

The kids are excited and we are having fun putting up the tree, wrapping gifts, going to Christmas programs, making Christmas treats and listening to Christmas music.  There is something so fun about hearing the story of Jesus coming to earth through the ears of a child.  As adults, we are so used to the story that nothing surprises us anymore.  The story can cease to be amazing.   Children seem to bring back how odd the reality of God coming to earth really is.  ”Jesus is God?”  ”He was born in a barn?”  ”They brought Him perfume?”  ”He laid where the sheep ate?…P U!”.

It seems to hit me even more the years that we have had a baby in the house.  I now look at Addie and think about how God chose to become completely helpless as a baby.  He was dependent on His creation to feed and care for Him.  So many times we choose to complain about this or that and even blame God or wonder why He isn’t answering our prayers.  I know I need the reminder that He gave everything when He came to this earth that is imperfect and full of sin.  He came to save us…He came to save you.

At times, we have also had fun thinking about how hard it would be to be a sibling to Jesus.  Mary would ask, “Why can’t you be more like Jesus?”, and tattling would be a total waste of time.  Although, I suppose He would be the most selfless to play with.

At any rate, we are having a lot of fun experiencing Christmas with 3 children this year.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.