Women's Connection Brunch

Setting up - the same routine as always!

 The food at the brunch was delicious and the people were wonderful. Scott Gottschalk was the speaker this time and he had several thrilling stories to tell about his many near death experiences before he was saved. What a life! Scott has had twenty-seven times when he probably should have died. He has had twenty-six fractured bones and been unconscious on five different occasions. Poisoning, a machinery mishap, a horrible motorcycle crash, a buffalo charge, and more! I'm so thankful my life isn't as hair-raising as his has been!

I hope you have a wonderful day rejoicing in all the blessings Jesus has given to us!

Kalona Gospel Sing

Our family had a great time performing at the Kalona Gospel Sing! 

One highlight of the trip was meeting the Garms family for the first time. We spent several fun hours deep in conversation... :)

We also had a chance to catch up with the Wissmann family and other musical friends.

Yum! Soft pretzels - a surprise treat from Daddy!

Piano pedal troubles! The pedal quit working, so it's great we could borrow one! Thanks guys!

We're searching for a screw we lost when trying to fix our pedal. Those screws are so tiny - we never did find it.

Praise the Lord for a refreshing evening of gospel music!

Day in Wisconsin

When I see the beauty of the world around us, I am constantly reminded of how amazing our God truly is!

We had some extra time before our concert, so we did some sightseeing along the way. I snapped with my cell phone - the best camera is the one you have with you!

...We enjoyed some candy bars in van en route to a scenic lookout...

It was a good, healthy treat, right?

The Tower 

(Hmmm... this looks sort of like something we've been studying about. More on that in the future.)

Shopping - MOST people in our family enjoyed this event. :)

Daddy took us out for a late lunch at the Copper Kettle.

Karen's egg

We all had to try some of the mussels - our family loves to try new foods or new food combinations and then duplicate our favorites at home. Did I mention that we love to cook???

The evening concert was held in the city park. Last year it rained. I'm thankful for the great weather we had this time!

They had a beautiful memorial in memory of our fallen heroes with a statue of a U.S. soldier in uniform from each big war our country was involved in.

Minnesonta

We are all worn out from our weekend travels, but our concert in Hinkley, MN went extremely well! Praise the LORD! People traveled to the concert from up to 4 1/2 hours away, coming from Michigan, Wisconsin, and up by the Canadian border! The church was packed with a responsive crowd and we sold a ton of CDs - we SOLD OUT on 2 of our CDs and were only left with a handful of the other two!!! It was fun.

The couple we stayed overnight with was so sweet. 

They had been dairy farmers. Here's a bit of humor from their house to brighten your day :)

 We stopped at the Mall of America for a few hours on our way home. 

The first neat store we spotted was a hat shop.

Oooo the fun of playing around! All sorts of choices!

Top hats, anyone?

Weird Bluegrass in South Dakota

On the way to our first concert, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants - 

a French American fusion named Cafe Brule. 

 See our drinks? We had a blast choosing the flavor combinations for our cream sodas. The list of choices was quite long...I went with Kiwi Dark Chocolate, Karen chose Peach Toasted Marshmallow, Seth thought Blueberry Butterscotch sounded good, and Daddy liked Macadamia Nut,  while Mommy definitely liked the Raspberry White Chocolate better.

We unloaded, set up, and played an evening concert, loaded back up...

and then unloaded and set up the next morning for a church concert...

and loaded back up.... then we unloaded and set up for an evening concert...
and of course loaded up again once it was done. Some people ask us how we get our exercise...
I wonder sometimes.

 weird Bluegrass - nowhere near Kentucky. For us Iowans, it looks sorta fake.
But, maybe that's how it's done in Kentucky.
Anyway, we were playing bluegrass on the bluegrass - not something you do every day!

Seth and Karen are warming up before the concert on their duet, Limerock.

We had a great time and were glad to see old friends and meet new ones.

It turns out that not only does this guy have a cool, one-of-a-kind John Deere tractor car, but he also had a brother who wrote some of the gear software that Daddy uses at John Deere! It's a small world.

With such a unique subject, I had to have some fun with the photos!

On the way home the following morning, 

we stopped once again at Cafe Brule for the dessert we had skipped a couple days ago!

No Wasps! Definitely an improvement.

A random photo of Silas in front of one of the gorgeous stained glass windows we come across during our travels...

Two area churches combined for our concert at Floyd Methodist Church in Floyd. We had a great time sharing with them and of course, the potluck afterward was wonderful!

This is a photo that was hanging in the room where we stored our cases during the concert.

What a thought provoking picture! Do you recognize the building? It's the UN headquarters.

After our concert in Floyd, we headed into Illinois to our next concert.

Here, Seth is making an adjustment to his tuning - the weather often throws the tuning out of whack. 

Karen warming up her fingers

A quick photo before the concert

Isn't their new sign great? The top is a replica of their church's roof.

I have to say that God definitely blessed us with the perfect weather for this concert. In all the years we've performed here, the weather has never been this good. No sprinkles, no heat, no cold, no big winds, no huge swarms of mosquitoes, and no wasps bothering us during the concert!

Amazing!