Willow Creek and Peoria, Illinois

We spent the night in the Willow Creek Community Church parking lot last night so that we didn't have to drive to far to get to church.  I was really excited to take the family to Willow.  I have been there before when I was working at Bayside.  If you haven't been to Willow let me tell you a little about it.  It is the second largest church in the US.  It has over 23,000 regular attenders (The largest is Lakewood Church in Houston with over 47,000).  Willow was founded in 1975 by Bill Hybels.  The property that Willow sits on is over 155 acres.  Every year Willow puts together a Leadership Summit that is satellited  to over 130 cities and 80,000 leaders.  When I worked at Bayside I helped run the Summit there.  Well, our visit to Willow was great.  The kids enjoyed the children's Ministry and Dave and I really enjoyed the sermon.  Willow had a guest speaker Dave Workman, senior pastor from The Vineyard in Cincinnati, Ohio.  We really enjoyed his message and his humor.  He talked about the unique ways his church serves the community.  

After church we had breakfast in Willows food court, bought some books in the bookstore and wondered around for a while.  We then hit the road and drove to Peoria.  We stopped at a country story and hopped on a tractor to go pick our own strawberries.  It was really a cool experience and we all had a good time doing it.  Although it was really hot and we only picked for 10 min.  All three boys decided they didn't want to be professional strawberry pickers.  We finally arrived at the campground and got

settled in.  We met a really nice English couple and shared a campfire and conversation with them.

Tip of the day - many companies have factory tours.  There is a website you can go to to find these tours all over the US.  here is the link www.factorytoursusa.com

Schaumburg and Barrington, illinois

We woke up Saturday morning at our favorite campground Walmart.  We decided to look for bikes on craigslist and came across a 100+ house garage sale.  Of course anyone that knows me knows that I couldn't pass that up.  I know all my friends back in California are very jealous!  It was quite the sale.  First, we had to find a place to park a 40ft beast on the busy neighborhood street lined with shoppers and cars.  Luckily we got there early and found a spot.  Dave is mastering the RV driving test.  Then we joined the other 1,000+ people who were walking up and down the numerous blocks in hope of a bargain.  The difference between garage selling in California and garage selling in Illinois is the weather.  It is so sticky hot that you actually want to stop garage selling after sweat is dripping down your neck.  That never happens in Cali.  The only time we stop garage selling is when our wallet and change holder in the car is empty.  I was looking for bikes which I did not find, but I did buy some VHS movies for a buck each.  Good thing our RV is the only house that still has a VHS machine or I'm sure those would have been sucked up by the hungry, bargain early bees.  

After the garage sale we pretty much wasted the rest of our day trying to figure out how to set up a wireless network.  We spent 2 hours at Best Buy and got no-where and another hour and a half at the Sprint store.  By that time the kids were about to lose their minds and take ours with them.  We decided a good meal was the only way to salvage the day.  So we went to Portillos the famous Chicago hotdog hotspot.  We splurged and had shakes with our dogs, burgers and beef sandwiches.  Dad, you would be proud I was the only one to order a dog!  It was delicious.  We decided to head to Willow Creek (the church we are very excited about attending tomorrow) and spend the night in the parking lot.  We just got a bang on the window, but they were very nice and let us stay.  I will tell you all about Willow Creek in the morning.  Goodnight.

Thought of the day - I have decided that their are two types of garage sellers.  There are the people who are out to make money and the people who want to get rid of their stuff.  You will never get a good deal from the first type and you will always get a steal from the second.

Here are my pics from downtown Chicago and the Science and Industry musuem

Chicago

Chicago has always been one of my favorite cities.  I have been there 2 times in the past few years and was so excited to take the boys there.  We started our day at the museum of Science and Industry.  I had read about this museum and thought it would be a great educational and entertaining experience for the boys.  I was wrong, it wasn't only great for the boys it was a educational experience for us adults too.  This was by far one of the best museums we have ever been too.  It had something for everyone.  I was blown away by the U-505 submarine.  This is the only German u-boat in the United States.   Not only was it fully intact and you could tour inside of it, but it also has an amazing history.  During World War 2 the Germans used u-boats or submarines to kill over 55,000 soldiers.  Hundreds of defenseless merchant ships were also brutally attacked.  In response the Allies formed convoys, consisting of up to 200 merchant ships, which were escorted across the Atlantic by escort carriers and destroyers.  When a U-boat attacked a convoy, the destroyers launched explosive underwater depth chargers and hedgehog bombs in an effort to thwart the submerged submarines.  Hitler countered by forming groups of U-boats, called Wolfpacks, to wreak havoc on the convoys.  In March 1943, the largest Wolfpack of the war- more than 40 U-boats strong- attacked two convoys made up of 100 Allied ships.  Twenty-one merchant ships were sent to the bottom.  By 1943 the U.S Navy decided that they were tired of being the hunted and decided to be hunter.  They created special antisubmarine escort ships and dispatched them in Units called Hunter-Killer Task Groups.  May 1944, Hunter-Killer Task Group 22.3 which consisted of a small aircraft carrier escort named USS Guadalcanal and five light destroyer escorts. USS Guadalcanal used its fighter planes and torpedo bombers to hunt for U-boats.  Once located the pilot would shoot down at the water so that the others would know where the U-boat was so they could send their underwater depth chargers.  Their goal was to not destroy but capture the German U-boat.  Captain Gallery and his fleet tracked a target U-boat for 2 months.  After loosing the U-boat they were ordered back to refuel when the U-boat was once again detected.  June 4, 1944 they attacked.  To make a very long story short, they were able to capture the U-boat and the 58 German soldiers (there was only one fatality) inside the sub.  They then had to get the boat to Bermuda without it sinking (which was difficult because the German soldiers did everything in their power to sink the sub before evacuating) this was over 2,500 nautical miles.  All this had to be done without the German's knowing that the U-boat was captured.  Once in Bermuda the US had control of the German Code books and military secrets.  This ended the brutal  attacks of German U-boats and eventually played a role in ending the war.  I also thought it was interesting that the US was allowed to go against the Third Genevia Convention by not allowing any of the 58 German soldiers to correspond with anyone.  They were thought to be dead by their family and friends. (The German government told the families that the ship had sunk).  So in 1947 I'm sure many loved ones had the shock and celebration of their lives when they found out that their sons were alive and heading home.  

The museum had so many other amazing exibits as well we didn't even have time to see half of them.  The others to top my list was planet earth, the nasa section, fingerprint lab and the coal mine (if we had more time).  If you ever get the chance to go to this musuem make sure you have all day!

After the museum we took a cab ride downtown.  We headed to pizzeria Uno for lunch.  The pizza's takes 45 min so we put our order in and waited.  We ordered calamari as an appetizer.  Peyton loves it (he loves to eat almost all things that come from the sea) Tanner and Sterling think its disgusting.  The pizza and my salad finally arrived (we were starving).  I hate to say it, but the boys weren't to fond of Chicago pizza.  They like the thinner crust, less cheese pizza that they grew up on.  After pizza we walked a lot.  Sterling has been having some muscle problems and was really having  a hard time on our long scenic walk.  We are getting a little worried about him, please keep him in your prayers.  We finally made our way to the free trolley and took a ride around town.  We got off at the John Hancock building (the second tallest building in Chicago).  A nice lady in the shuttle told us that we could ride for free to the top of the building if we go up to the restaurant or bar.  So we saved the $15 per person and headed up.  While in the elevator another lady mentioned that the best view was from the ladies restroom.  Boy was she right!  The window on the 95Th floor of the ladies restroom stretched from floor to ceiling and was about 20 feet long.  It was amazing.  I stood in there taking pictures for a long time figuring the boys were doing the same in their restroom.  Come to find out that the men's restroom had no window at all!  This is the first time in history that it payed to be a women when it came to peeing and restrooms!  Peyton snuck into the women's restroom to enjoy the view with me (he decided that this was the first time that it payed to be the youngest).  After the view we went to borders and then visited the girradelly chocolate store and the hershey store which were conveniently located across the street from each other.   After much more walking and then another bus we finally made it back to our RV.  

Tip of the day - stop into chocolate stores often, they almost always give you free samples!  Yum!

Indiana Dunes State Park, Indiana

Today we took it easy and enjoyed the state park. We took a mile long walk to Lake Michigan.  We thought it was going to be a leisurely stroll, boy were we wrong!  It started through gorgeous overgrown greenery (lots of black oak trees) on both sides of a sand trail.  After a quarter of a mile we came upon a wooden staircase.  This staircase went straight up for another quarter of a mile then back down just as far.  After we made it over the stair case we hit the sand dunes.  Going down the sand dunes didn't seem that bad or take that long.  Coming back up was a different story!  Once we got down the dune we saw Lake Michigan.  The kids were blown away at how big it was!  It seriously looks like the Pacific Ocean without the waves.  The boys had a blast building forts.  Actually this is pretty cool, the boys built the Alamo.  I so enjoyed seeing them take what they learned and understanding it so well that they were able to turn it into a fun game.  Tanner built the Alamo and the surounding wall.  He put rocks on the wall representing Travis, Crockett and Bowie.  So Sterling decided to build a fort for the Mexican Army.  He put Santa Anna on his wall along with other Mexican soldiers. Then the war began!  The object of their game was to shoot cannons (throw small rocks) and knock down the other forts' soldiers.  You were victorious if you could displace all the other Armies' leaders.  The best part of the game is that they remembered so many facts from the Alamo.  Tanner called for back up from Gonzalas but that only gave him 32 additional rock men and Sterling made reference to Houston who ultimately took his army down.  Peyton took sides with Sterling and kept telling Tanner that he was bound to lose because the real Alamo was defeated.  He then switched sides when Tanner mentioned that Houston's army was coming in to destroy Santa Ana once he was defeated.   After the war we walked down the beach to a swimming area.  It was a very cool beach.  Then came the walk back!  That's when we realized that on the way down the last part of our walk was a quarter mile straight down a sand dune!  Now we were walking a quarter mile straight up a sand dune.  This was quite a work out! Did I fail to mention the humidity!  We Californians are not use to the sticky, hot weather from hell.  We all made it back a little sweaty, a lot sandy and very thirsty.  We got a drink and headed to the showers.  The rest of the day we played games (we opened a new game the other night called Wits and Wagers and now the kids want to play it all the time), rode rip-sticks, played with legos, got phone calls done and had a nice dinner.  

 

I forgot to mention the awesome lightning storm we had last night.  The bolts were so frequent the sky hardly had time to get dark before the next one hit.  Man if you haven't seen a lightning storm outside of California you are missing something amazing!  

Once again I'm having trouble downloading pics... I will drop the rest in tomorrow.

South Bend Indiana and Indiana Dunes State Park

We woke up late at WalMart and got some home schooling done.  We found a Krispy Kreme next door and stopped in for a little treat.  I really am glad the Krispy Kremes in Sacramento closed down.  I am totally addicted to Krispy Kreme.  It is the one food that when it is in my presence I am totally out of control.  I honestly can't just eat just one.  I've never been a smoker, drug user or caffine addict but if I was surrounded by Krispy Kreme donuts on a day to day basis I would be 500 pounds.  We unfortunately bought 2 dozen, first mistake!  I have now put back every pound I have lost from my jogging.  Enough about Krispy Kreme, if I keep talking about it I'm bound to head into the kitchen (I make it sound as if the kitchen is a second room far away) and get myself another one.  Well, after Krispy Kreme (this is the 6th time I mentioned Krispy Kreme in one paragraph, make it 7) we did a bunch of errands...boring!  Then we headed to Norte Dame to see why the Irish are so mad!  The "Fighting Irish"...get it?  I couldn't figure it out since the campus was so nice and peaceful.  The buildings reminded me of England and the grounds were very clean and very green (lots of grass and trees).  We saw touchdown Jesus and the tunnel that Rudy ran out of.  Luckily we did not get kicked off the campus or beaten up by the fighting Irish due to Dave and Sterling wearing maroon and gold SC t-shirts and humming the SC fight on song (not to mention the gold SC emblem on the back of our maroon bummer)!  Thanks goodness they didn't pull out the BIG SC flag and hang it out the window.  Dave wanted me to mention at this point that Notre Dame's record in football last year was 3 wins, lots of losses (actually he just added that when he was editing).  We pulled into a student parking lot and enjoyed a nice Irish dinner in our RV.  Actually, I made Matza Ball soup.  Kinda the same, Irish and Jewish, two highly religious groups.  I even threw in some bread I bought from the Amish to round it out.  After dinner we drove to Indiana Dunes State Park.   Since it was so late we decided to hang in the RV and play a family game, Wits and Wagers (and eat another Krispy Kreme, 8).  We are looking forward to playing in Lake Michigan in the morning and hopefully seeing the Chicago skyline in the distance.  

p.s. I have a few pics but my internet connection is the weak so I will try to add the pics tomorrow.

Monaco Factory Tour

Since I really wanted to take a tour of the Monaco factory, the birthplace of our own Monaco Diplomat, Cindi is allowing me to write the blog for today.  

After our "jogs" and our daily home school we had the Direct TV installation person arrive to finally get us setup with satellite TV.  Long story, but he was unable to get us connected.  Turns out we need a company/person who specializes in motorhomes.

 We did make it to Wakarusa (still in the Amish Indiana area) where the Monaco factory is located, in time for our scheduled 2:00pm

 tour.  Upon arrival we all got our own headsets and safety glasses.  The factory was in 

full motion and the headsets were actually needed on the loud factory floor to be able to hear the sales person that was leading us around.  We got to walk through all the different stations and see the plain chassis with tires all the way through to the end product.  We saw people assembling wiring, flooring and walls, cabinetry, etc.  

It was all very interesting but when the end of the work day buzzer sounded at 2:20pm all the workers disappeared.  The floor became deserted and all the lights started to go out.  What a 

difference a few minutes make.  I guess it was a good example of "hourly" employees.  We were told that this factory is currently running at only 50% capacity as the whole industry is going through more difficult times.  About 5 new motorhomes roll out

the completion doors each day. Anyway our tour continued and we got to go through several diesel pushers and gas models that were nearing completion.  We love our motorhome and it is working great for our family (with 3 boys!) but the brand-spankin' new ones do have some nice improvements and features.  I guess that's what an extra $200,000 will get you.  After the official end of the factory tour we had a chance to ask a ton of questions and talk with 2 sales people and some other more experienced motorhomers.  In all, we ended up staying there for over 2 1/2 hours.  We all really enjoyed the tour.  It was very educational and something a little different.  I should note that Tanner, Sterling and Peyton were awesome.  They were very polite and well behaved.  As we left they even gave us some Monaco hats.

After the tour we drove up near South Bend, home of Notre Dame where we might swing by tomorrow.  We promised the kids we'd take them to a GameStop video game store because their summer sale started yesterday, so we ended up at the closest one in Mishawaka, IN.  What do you know... there is a WM Superstore across the street.  Goodnight!

Shipshewana, Menno-Hof, and Yoder Popcorn

We had a nice morning, Dave made french toast and bacon.  We went for a jog and a quick swim before we headed back into Shipshewana to visit the Menno-Hof museum. This is a wonderfully thoughtout museum about the Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish. We learned a lot about the 3 groups and what makes them different (I would give you the history lesson on the three, but I'm way too tired).  The museum walks you through the Anabaptist movement from persecution to today.  We really enjoyed how this museum was layed out.  You would walk with a guide through different rooms that told the story through lights, video, movement and the visual surroundings.  There was even a tornado room that attempted to simulate an actual tornado.  That was the boys favorite room.  

After the museum we drove to the Yoder Popcorn Shoppe, had samples and bought some popcorn.  We then drove down the Heritage Trail and enjoyed more Amish sightings and awesome farms.  We wanted to go to the Monaco factory tour but were too late so we decided to stay in town tonight and visit it tomorrow.  We went back to pla-mor campground and made a nice dinner.  Tomorrow the cable guy(DirecTV) is coming to hook up our dish!  Yeah, I wont miss any "So you Think you can Dance."

Thought of the Day:  Why do kids in suspenders and hats look so much cuter then kids in t-shirts and shorts?

Twin Mills Campground

We woke up at the Walmart in Michigan and after some errands we drove to a near=by park so the kids could burn off some energy.  It was a very nice kids park but I found it a little odd.  Directly across the street was an old cemetery.  I guess for those buried there the grass is really greener on the other side of the street.  We then headed back into Illinois and found a huge campground called Twin Mills.  It's a very nice campground but it is the most expensive campground we have stayed at ($42 per night).   We will only be here one night.  We did take a nice walk to the near-by river.  The kids had a great time climbing across a log that had fallen over the river.  I was pretty sure one of them was going to fall in, but they all made it out dry.

Sterling has invented and perfected a new sport.  It is called rip-stick football.  He is amazingly good at it!  You throw him a pass and he can go after it and catch it while riding his rip-stick.  We finished the night off with a campfire.

Since we don't have any pictures of the day I thought I would post the beginning of a game we have been playing.  We have been searching all over the US for our friends and families names in lights.  We have found a few so far,  if yours is not one of them, don't worry, we have a long way to go.  Love you all!