Rainy and Refreshing Roadtrips

I've been a bit busy, so this blog is a summary in pictures of my last weekend.

I recently went on a trip with a couple of really good friends of mine, Emma and Jamie.  It started around the time of a sunset, as we all had to meet up after we got off of work or got done with our regular workweek lives.  Emma had planned this and had decided to make it more of a surprise trip for us.  We had some pretty heavy rain on our way to where we were staying that night, but we got through, and the clouds and sky are always pretty if you ask me. 

On our first fantastic stop, we enjoyed a video tour of the Jelly Belly warehouse and ate some delicious jelly beans.  We weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour, but they had a cute sign.

We then proceeded to Mars Cheese Castle where we bought some Wisconsin cheese and made some lunch in the minivan.  Wisconsin cheese is delicious.  

On our way to the next location, it rained a lot.  This is a picture of my window that I thought looked pretty cool.  Of course, our next location was to our campsite, so we were all hopeful that it would stop raining soon.

We only had to sit in the van for a little while before the weather cleared up and we got to see this gorgeous view as we trekked around the campgrounds after the tent was set up.

 The campgrounds had an amphitheater, so Jamie and Emma put on a play for me.  Jamie has a stick in her hand, by the way.

Later that night, we overheard some women talking about a church service on Sunday morning at the amphitheater.  We ended up going to church with a little group from a local church that happened to be camping in the same campgrounds as us!

 We climbed 2 observation towers and were amazed when we reached the top of the second one.  It was pretty cool to see this weather happening so far away.  I was amazed at the contrast that you could see from that distance.  It made me think of about the fact that God is with you, even when you can't see Him working and don't feel Him.  The people that were stuck in that storm were probably not all that happy about having to get wet in order to do anything outside.  Children in the storm may have felt trapped inside.  But the sun was still there.  It was still warming the earth around them just like it has been for a very long time.  They just couldn't see it.  

And on a good note for the three of us, it didn't rain on us for the remainder of the trip.

On Sunday, we headed to the National Mustard Museum.  I had no idea there were so many kinds of mustard, but there are!  Some of them are weirder than others, like Cranberry Mustard or Chocolate Mustard.  

Next to the Mustard Museum was a cute, local diner so we grabbed lunch from there before heading back to Indiana to plunge back into our 'normal' lives.  The diner had some pretty delicious looking carrot cake, but was known best for it's pie, which was delicious!

One last picture of all three of us together at the campgrounds!

On the way back to Indiana I just kept thinking about how grateful I am to have these awesome friends.  These women of God have continuously pulled me back to God through my various highs and lows.  This trip was super refreshing for me.  From laughing at our ridiculous level of silliness together to singing Psalms with made up melodies while sitting on a hill overlooking gorgeous views of God's creation, I am more than happy that these girls decided to get together with me this weekend.  This weekend-long expedition has finished but my friendship with these amazing people has only begun!  

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo