Okay, so I mentioned that we went on vacation after Christmas, and that it turned out differently than we expected. :) Here’s what happened:

The plan was to see Mom’s family for a couple of days, drive back to St. Paul and stay with some friends there, and then drive home. After we’d gotten about halfway, Mom got a text from my aunt saying that their poor family just got sick with the flu. Uh-oh. We certainly couldn’t go there!

Instead of turning around, the Amours were a wonderful solution to our fast-approaching delimma.  They let us stay with them on the spur of the moment. Now that is incredibly gracious hospitality! Thank you so much for letting us stay with you, Armours!

 Austin and Mrs. Armour share the same birthday, so we celebrated it together.

I was encouraged, as always, to see Hannah. <3 We all had a fun snowball fight, and played games in the snow. I forgot how much of a workout it is run in the snow, and I was sore the next day! :)

Since we were together, we got a “GWP team photo” to post on God’s World Photography. You can see it here.

Our family visited the botanical center at Como Zoo, a long-beloved place of refuge during the cold, long winters of Minnesota. I have many great memories of visiting there from when we lived in that area. I took a bunch of pictures of the plants. Here are my favorites:

This sloth was truly bookin’ it in his cage! I couldn’t believe how fast he was moving (for a sloth, of course!) :)

We didn’t have time to see all the animals, but we always go to see the monkeys. The are so entertaining. :)

Having some extra time, we drove out to see our old home in Wisconsin. It’s always a bit sad seeing the familiar place again, but I was glad to see that it looked much the same.

We then stayed with the Alzen family as planned. They are such a sweet family, and were one of the first families we got to know when moving to Wisconsin!

The Alzens have a family bluegrass band, and they played a few of their songs for us before we left. Now this family is really, really good, and they honor God in all of their music. They have made some great CD’s, and you check them out here.

It was fun to see the ski hills and snowmobile trails (things you don’t find in Missouri). :)

So there you have it, folks! Our trip was different, but memorable and sweet. We were blessed by wonderful friendships, gracious hosts, and time spent as a family.

Happy Saturday!
~ Brookie