Independence Day at Little Amerricka

Our friends invited us to go to Little Amerricka, a small amusement park in Marshall, WI, with them on the 4th of July, so we joined them for the day. Every other time we've gone, it has been packed and HOT, but I feel like we had the park to ourselves. There were hardly any lines. And it was pretty overcast the whole time, so it was too hot. It sprinkled a handful of times- the time it rained kind of heavier for a while, we had just gotten on the train under a covered roof, and that's like a 1/2 hour ride, so we lucked out! It had stopped by the time we pulled back into the station.

We started with the monorail, getting a good lay of the land.

You can't really make out the llama and emus in this pic, but the long train ride that covers what appear to be multiple biomes also includes zebra sightings (No biggie- Mike grew up across from zebras).

It took a while for her to agree to go on the ferris wheel. And a while for her to get over her fears once we were riding.

But then she went a couple more times.

After I yelled it to her multiple times each time she came around, she finally figured out she could make her helicopter rise by pulling the handle towards her (She was the only one on the ride).

These two 😎

We took advantage of seafood-dispising Iris's absence (she went home with our friends to watch fireworks with them) to go to Red Lobster for the holiday since we were on that side of Madison at dinnertime.

Mike shot off some of our own little fire crackers at home.

Happy Independence Day, all!

Fireman's Park Beach... blessings in disguise

Our friends have been having a rough go of things lately- like chaos after calamity, one after the other... a lot of what I'd call spiritual attacks, as they are such a faithful family. And why would satan mess with anyone who's not a threat?

I just got a text saying things were not good on Tuesday morning, and asked for prayers, and so the kids and I stopped a prayed a Rosary for them. That always seems to be the best thing to do in situations like these- the kids' prayers seem so powerful. After the Rosary, I asked if we could pick up some of their kids and bring them back to our house, and after first saying yes, she said, actually, they just needed to get out of their house- could we meet them at Fireman's Park? So we bustled around, grabbing snacks and towels and water toys.

Our friends arrived much later than we expected them, and when they arrived, we discovered that they had run over some barbed-looking object on the way there, and I could hear air hissing as it rushed from their back Transit tire (Par for the course). We quickly got all of the kids and stuff out and Carol drove to Costco before the tire got too low while the bigger kids and I watched the younglings at the spray park and beach for the next couple of hours...

They did not have the right tire size in stock, so her oldest had to come meet her with their other van at Costco, where they then moved everything over. Of course, there were snags, and things took a long time. But the kids played well and had a blast burning off some energy at the spray park and in the sand and water.

"Build a canyon." ~Mary

The fun thing about this park is that the beach area is free before noon, and that's usually when we'd go anyway. At 12, they tell everyone in the beach area they have to pay for a wristband if they want to stay there, but we're usually ready to leave- or can just go up and finish our time at the awesome spray park and playground.

I felt so many graces during our time... such an overwhelming peace, despite Penny falling and scraping her leg and getting a bloody nose (the big girls swarmed to retrieve the first aid kit from our van) and being in charge of lots o' littles. Penny and Mary played so sweetly.

And when Carol and her son finally returned with their other van, she had the most thoughtful gift for me that she said she had been carrying around in the back of her van- totally unexpected, but just more evidence of God's unexpected graces and providence.

My friend could still use prayers- they are dealing with more than their fair share right now, but I'm confident God will be with them through all of the struggles and will remind them of his mercies at every opportunity- and I'm glad that maybe God can use me amidst it all. Friends are such a blessing. And I have a handful of amazing ones. What a good God...