WI surprises yet again!

It was my second weekend in a row being in WI and yet again I was surprised. Maybe there is something to that state after all. :)

Katie, Craig, Sam and I all went to WI to take a breather from life and the craziness of work and for me and Sam, grad school. We have our thesis papers to write in the next two months and are looking out at them looming and kind of saw this as a last hurrah before we really get down to buisness. Well there were a LOT of surprises... first - although most of you know that Katie and I are essentially the same person, we discovered that Sam and Craig are really similar as well! :) It was funny watching all four of us interact. When we got to WI it was snowing pretty hard, and we had to park the truck and load all of our gear onto two 4-wheelers and drive a little ways into the woods to the Rykal cabin. WOW. Rustic is was. There is no electricity, no running water, an outhouse, and NO HEAT. Keep in mind it was bearly 0 when we arrived, and the cabin was not much warmer. So we huddled together in front of the fireplace while it slowly heated the cabin to a balmy 40. By the time we went to bed it was 55 ... WOO HOOO!!! But when we woke in the morning, it was a toasty 70 in the house and even more lovely and sunny outside.
We slept in, hung out inside and then decided to take a 4wheel ride around the woods and trails... well that ride was a little more than we bargained for when we got stuck and had to push the atv's out of the snow, uphill, and hike part of the way. It was rough in deep snow, but eventually we got back to the groomed trails and were on our way. No matter how tired we were from pushing or hiking, there were beautiful surprises in nature everywhere we looked. What a gorgeous place they have ... quiet ... just God and us. I really felt like God was everywhere this weekend - and it was an amazing feeling. Somehow God just feels more present in the north woods than in the middle of minneapolis, and I don't know why... but I like it.

Thanks God, for the amazing weekend. And thanks for Katie and Craig and their little cabin in the woods... we are so blessed.
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Natalia