• Adventures

    Ometepe and My Family

    The summer after I graduated high school my family took a missions trip with others from our church to Nicaragua to help with kids after school program, among other things. This trip was a wonderful, and unique opportunity for our family. We enjoyed planning for and serving on this trip. From the beginning, this seemed like an intriguing opportunity because we would all get to try our hand at missions work together. During the trip, we helped serve with a missionary couple on the island of Ometepe. It was a beautiful place and we got to contribute with the rest of the team from our church in helping with the…

  • Adventures

    Gladers in Colorado

    My Dad’s side of the family has had two big family reunions in my lifetime, one was back in the nineties – so I barely remember it, but it was in the town I lived in at the time but the other one was when I was about 13. I really enjoyed that one because it was in Colorado, so we made a vacation out of the experience, and got to have it with so many cousins! It was just my immediate family driving to and from Colorado, but we met up with everyone not only at a great resort near Rocky Mountain National Park, but we also saw my…

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    SKOL!…wait…

    Today’s post is two-fold. My Mom and I found two great things to do in Green Bay Wisconsin today. We slept in an extra hour and first headed over to The Automobile Gallery. A beautiful car showroom. From antique cars to vintage trucks, and a van. Plus a DeLorean! Now I’m not as much of a car person as you might think, especially concerning modern cars, but I love the history that comes along with old cars and thinking about the adventures their owners had with the vehicles. Maybe a family enjoyed numerous family trips in the old coupe, or maybe the collector of the DeLorean enjoyed giving rides to…

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    The Door to Adventure

    My Mom and I decided to take a trip this weekend. We drove to Green Bay Wisconsin last night, and we explored Door County all day. From the beaches to shops, and parks, and antiquing. We made the most of our time while still enjoying a leisurely day. We got up nice and early to make the trip up through the Peninsula. We drove through the scenic byway route most of the day. My favorite part though was sitting at the beaches, and enjoying the wonderful lakeside atmosphere. Sounds cheesy but it’s true. The lesson? Discover new things in the state next door. My family has driven up the more…

  • Adventures

    Naturally Faithful

    My parents took my sister and me on a trip to Yellowstone in the summer of about 2008. Here’s why it was great and what a kid (like myself at the time) can learn from this kind of trip. By the way, I’m officially calling this series, lessons from family vacations, probably. This was the longest trip I had been on at the time, between travel time, distance, time in the park and otherwise. My sister and I got the chance to see some of the wonders nature has to offer – up close and personal. We got to see some of the most unique and fascinating things right in front…

  • Adventures

    A Gateway to Awesome

    My parents took my sister and me on a trip to the St. Louis Missouri in summer of 2006 I believe, here’s why it was great and what a kid (like myself at the time) can learn from this kind of trip. We saw a local Zoo, a unique museum as well as the Gateway Arch. But in this post, I want to touch on the experience of camping. My family was fortunate enough to have a small camper when my sister and I were very young. A little later on my parents found a pop-up camper, and we took many trips with both, and in between a few tent…

  • Adventures

    Carved In Stone

    My parents took my sister and me on a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota in summer of 2004, here’s why it was great and what a kid (like myself at the time) can learn from this kind of trip. Before this trip, we hadn’t really taken long family road trips. We had done weekend camping trips, numerous trips across the state to my grandparents home, and maybe a couple of local adventures. But this was big, we brought the pop-up camper my parents had at the time and started driving. One of our first stops to my knowledge was Wall Drug, the best tourist trap in South…

  • Adventures,  Family

    A Whole New World

    My parents took my sister and me on a trip to Disney world in summer of 2005, here’s why it was great and what a kid (like myself at the time) can learn from this kind of trip. I love Disney, even in college when asked to come up with what my favorite brand was I decided to write down Disney. I know it’s a huge corporation and everything, but I still grew up with this stuff, and love many of the movies to this day. Let me first acknowledge that my parents took me at a nearly perfect age. Just before I turned 10, I was old enough to…

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    Beverage of Choice

    I’m a millennial, at least from the research I’ve done. I grew up looking forward to the times my parents would let me have pop (some people call it a soft drink). I tried coffee in late high school and discovered that I liked it, and still do. I’ll even admit that I like the “fru-fru” drinks, but that’s a lot of caffeine and money so those are a once-in-a-great-while treat. My parents, a baby-boomer and gen X-er, still like their pop though. Mostly classics like Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew. I’m personally not a huge fan of that sugary syrup anymore, but whatever floats their boats I guess.…

  • Fun,  Learning

    Holy Guacamole

    Since college, I’ve come to love guacamole (guac). Every once in a while I’ll get some with my burritos, or order a meal with it at a restaurant. One day I decided I wanted to try making my own at home, I thought, maybe it’ll be cheap and easy. So I looked up recipes online. I tried one and although it was relatively simple, it called for a lot of ingredients. I did it all and it was good, but I wondered if I could make it simpler. I did. Although my recipe is bare bones if you just want a snack and you have these 2 ingredients on hand…