Rachel and David had invited us to come up to Milwaukee for
a visit while we were in Illinois, but we did not make a definite decision
until we were in Illinois and saw that Mom could handle a few shorter visits
better than longer one. This turned out to be an unexpected and happy surprise
for our trip.
Rachel and David, Sam (10) and Elizabeth (5) had just
returned home after their own northern trip. First they went to see Candy’s Dad
in Minneapolis. This was Great Grandpa Miller’s first chance to meet Elizabeth.
He told us by phone how much he enjoyed her lively, friendly personality. He
also told us how impressed he was with Sam’s maturity. By having them debrief
their visit with Grandpa Miller and talking to him by phone ourselves, we felt
we connected the dots with the whole Midwest branch of our family.
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| Grandpa Kent entertains Elizabeth and Jenna |
They also went to Ashland at the northern tip of Wisconsin
to visit friends from their Milwaukee church who have moved up into the north
woods and to enjoy climbing around on the many waterfalls of that area.
After visiting with Mom on Saturday morning we headed to the
South Shore WMCA in Cudahy, Wisconsin where Sam had a swim meet. He started the
opening medley relay with the back stroke and opened up such a lead the other
teams had no way to catch up. He swam well in a couple of other events as well.
That evening we all went to Rachel’s parents to celebrate
her birthday (which was actually on Sunday, April 15 – tax day). Her Mom made a
chocolate cake with chocolate frosting covered with chocolate chips. Get the
idea?! The top was surrounded with yellow “Peeps”® (yes you read that right) so it looked like a
sunflower. Such fun to watch Elizabeth and her “twin” cousin Jenna (Rachel’s
brother Nigel’s daughter)!
At Rachel and David’s we got to see their wonderfully
remodeled kitchen, which features the sun painting I did in our first apartment
43 years ago. It fits right in with the décor. Now that it is much more
spacious we enjoyed not only eating there but also playing games together.
Rachel and David are active (and in leadership) with Milwaukee Mennonite
Church, and we enjoyed worshipping with them on Sunday afternoon. They meet at
4:00 pm in a Lutheran Church’s building. We’ve come a long way in church unity
since the 16th century!
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