Happy Easter!

Hallelujah! He is risen! Here are various pictures from the last couple days, featuring visits from family members, group activities, meals,

and church services.

Spring Snowstorm

This might be our biggest snowstorm of the '12-'13 season, with 7 inches total.  Other areas got quite a bit more (Springfield, IL, got 17 inches). See entry for March 29, 2009, for pictures from another late March snowstorm.

Kris is back...

...from her mission trip to Oklahoma to help prepare a Bible camp for the summer. We are thankful that things went well.  I have attached a few pix from the trip.  Here in Peoria the weather was somewhat mild, but no flowers yet.  I saw a couple of students playing frisbee at Bradley today.  The forecast calls for snow tomorrow, though.

To Sturgeon Bay to Peoria

After doing more cleaning and packing at my parents' house near Green Bay, we headed to Karen's dad's place near Sturgeon Bay.  Somewhat less snow in Door County, but still enough to make a sizable snowman.  We saw lots of turkeys in the fields. There were lots of boats at Bay Ship.  I just read that the lifespan of these sorts of freshwater ships is some 60 years (in contrast to 20 for a saltwater boat).  Today we traveled back to Peoria, arriving on time for the fish fry at St. Anthony's Church.

Happy Start of Spring!

On Monday we drove up to Green Bay, WI, to visit my parents and help them to move to their home in Mountain, WI.  A late-winter snowstorm and its slippery snow forced us to stay in a hotel in Appleton - we rarely have had to do this.  Monday night the weather turned cold and windy, with blowing snow and drifting. On Tuesday we helped my parents pack and move their kitchen. We used Katie to help check some of the upper shelves.  Most of the rest of their stuff has already been moved. The Mountain home is surrounded by knee-deep snow. If only I could snowshoe!  Our van got stuck in the slippery driveway snow, but we got it unloaded and pulled out.  Today the cold continued - it feels like January around here.  This has been one of the coldest starts to spring in the Green Bay area - the last time it was this cold was 1986. My parents took a rare break from moving to go for a drive to Eagle River, WI.  Turns out that there is not much to do there this time of the year (except outdoor winter activities).  Some of the Christmas decorations are still up!  We visited a few places on our trip and I have attached a few pictures.  

St. Patricks' Day Weekend

This week was busy for us as we tried to get prepared a little for all of our spring breaks.  Kris left for her mission trip to Oklahoma on Friday morning.  She arrived today and reported that the weather is warm there. Not as much warmth for us here, though some of the early spring plants are popping up.  I do not think this spring will be like the early spring Peoria had last year, and certainly not like the March/April we had last year in Austin with the warm weather and dazzling wildflowers and swimming.  The skies have not not been very clear lately, which made it very difficult to see the Pan-STARRS comet (my diminished mobility did not help, either).  Saturday, I spent most of the day on campus with a class I am co-teaching (I also did a little clutter control).  We are watching some friends' kids this weekend and they and Katie built a bedding fortress in which to spend the night.  On Sunday morning Karen served her traditional green (food-colored) eggs and ham, as well as green milk and rolls with green frosting.  In the afternoon, we attended a St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Peoria.  I'm a bit cynical about St. Patrick's Day and how this Christian-based holiday has become associated with some un-Christian behaviors, and some of the behaviors I saw downtown supported that notion.  On the other hand, the parade was largely family-friendly and a good time was had by all.  In addition to getting beads and candy (Karen had an amazing grab of a flying bag of M&Ms), we saw people we knew from church and school, both in and watching this sizable parade.  During the chilly one-hour event we saw the pope (how did they find a guy that looked like him so quickly?), St. Patrick, a couple leprechauns, and the Easter Bunny.

Musical Weekend

On Friday, Kristine and Karen traveled to Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL, (where Da Bears have their training camp) so Kris and others from her school could participate in the Association for Christian Schools International Music Festival, which draws choirs and bands from Illinois and Wisconsin.  They had a good time and returned Saturday.  While they were gone, Katie made a snowman with the melting snow (I could only help her literally get the balls rolling and coach from the snow-free pavement).  She built a cute snowman, but last night's thunderstorms nearly completely melted it before I got a picture.  The rains caused a small mudslide on the Farmington Road hill and will put the Illinois River into a low flood stage.  This evening, we attended a commissioning service for Kristine and 14 other students' upcoming mission trip to southeastern Oklahoma.

Cool Picture

My sister Tina is visiting the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain.  She took this awesome picture, and gave me permission to post it.  I really like the lighting.