Back in Arizona

I'm a little late posting this, but of course we are back in Arizona now. We arrived late on Monday, the 18th. It was a good vacation overall, and as most vacations go it's good to be back home too. To all our family and friends: thank you so much for your accommodations and making our trip a pleasant one. It was great seeing you all! We most likely be back in a couple years. Next year's destination: California!

 On our trip home, we flew from Minneapolis to Denver, and had a layover there for an hour before heading out to Phoenix. The layover got extended another hour or so because of more sandstorms in Phoenix. As we were doing our best to entertain the kids while waiting in the airport, Micah received a "tickle torture" from me which led to him wetting his shorts. Of course all our luggage was checked so Micah and I went into the men's room to do some laundry. I had him strip down from the waist down so we could wash everything out the best we could, and then the plan was to dry the shorts and undies with the heated hand dryers. We were in there almost an hour, most of the time working on drying the clothes.  Here's a picture of Micah drying his Buzz undies:

I added the last batch of photos from the trip to the photo album.

Vacation Highlights so Far

Micah stopped himself on his way down one of the water slides in Wisconsin Dells. He refused to go down unless his sister could join him. The staff wouldn't let any of us go down and get him, and his stubbornness held up the line for about 20 minutes. Finally a life guard came from the bottom and climbed up and talked him into coming down.

Rasmussen Family

We had a fun time with the Rasmussen family over the 4th of July weekend. We planned to go to the Minnesota Zoo on Saturday but we couldn't because of the State Government shut down. How bizarre! We hit Como Zoo instead... not quite the same, but still fun.

We walked around our old neighborhood with Papa Steve (my dad) on the 5th.

Another Micah story: Mandy Cornelius and Sara went to a beach in Maple Grove with the kids yesterday and Micah disappeared. The beach and water were packed and he was nowhere to be found. Just as Sara entered into panic mode, the life guards called for everyone to clear the pool because another little boy was lost. Once the swimming area was cleared, Micah showed up in the deep end all alone. He had his life jacket on and was doing fine, he was just looking for the other kids (he said). The other missing boy was found too, and was okay.

• Upcoming: 

• Heading to Grandma Pam's (my mom) tomorrow
• Celebrating Micah and Uncle Jesse's (my brother) birthday on Saturday
• Sharing our testimony and co-leading worship at Lewis Lake Covenant on Sunday
• Uncle James (my brother) and family (from Sioux Falls) coming to visit first half of the week
• Hanging with Sara's family the last part of the week
• Leading worship at St. Louis Park Evangelical Free on Sunday
• Flying home on Tuesday the 18th

*Pictures are added to the Photo Album daily

Midwest Vacation

We are officially back in Minnesota for a visit. We started the trip last Monday, driving to Phoenix and spending the night there. It was somewhere around 110 degrees, but we were in water or air conditioning most of the time so it wasn't too bad. We flew out of Phoenix the next day and landed in Minneapolis around 5 pm. Sara's sister, Jenna, picked us up and we got some Bruegger's Bagels and hung out at Lake Harriet for a little while. We then drove another 3 hours to Wisconsin Dells, where we went to an amazing variety of water parks called The Wilderness. There were three huge water parks near where we stayed, and one additional one that we could go to via pontoon across the lake. Our room was amazing too. It was a 1200 sq. ft. condo that made our stay very comfortable.

We'll be here in the midwest until July 18th. I'll update some things here along the way, and will also be adding photos in the Photo Album daily (hopefully) to capture the trip. So far, the weather has been just about perfect for all the outdoor activities. We're looking forward to the next couple weeks of reuniting with many friends and family.