~ Sabbatical 2014: Rest in the North Woods

Thanks to some dear friends, our sabbatical travels began in a beautiful house on a quiet, little lake in the north woods of Wisconsin.

Thank you, Jim and Judy! 

The first morning I woke up early and realized my husband was missing. This is where I found him that morning and every morning after that.

All my boys were perfectly content to begin their day casting a line.

The fish were little but they tasted yummy!

Other favorite activities were seeing who could start a fire and trying to keep it going as long as possible. 

(Mr. Jim, we owe you a truckload of wood!)

Mini golf was a big hit, as was trying a different place for ice cream every single day! That's what you do to make four hungry boys happy!

We played poker every night (yes we taught our 6-year-old how to play), read lots of books, and laughed a lot. And everyone had to have their snuggles with the bear!

The minute the boys heard that Paul Bunyan's was all you could eat, their faces lit up. It's all about the food with them!

I only include these next two photos to prove that I was actually on this vacation.

My favorite thing was watching my children spend hours in the water learning to kayak.

This one could not be stopped. He wanted to do everything his big brother's did, 

so we let him!

I'm pretty sure at one point I caught one of the boys in the middle of the lake reading a book.

We saw loons and an eagle. The eagle swooped down close to one of the kayak's and grabbed a fish from the water. So cool for the boys to see.

Sometimes, it looked like a mother duck (or papa duck) leading her babies. They had so much fun!

 (Thanks James and Kari for lending us the kayak's! They provided hours of enjoyment.)

We could not have asked for a better beginning to our sabbatical journey. Enjoying God and His creation, resting in the peace and quiet of the beautiful north woods, and reconnecting as a family after a very busy season of ministry was such a gift. Sometimes God gives us little drippings of grace, and sometimes He pours it out until we are overwhelmed by it. This was one of those times!