To Dubuque and beyond!!

The last week or so our family has done a lot of traveling.  We spent a night in Dubuque at Wartburg Seminary so Paul could attend a spiritual formation event at the seminary.  Sophia and I hung out...we did some shopping and spent time with family.  We got to see our niece Sam run for Clarke University.  She did a wonderful job and is going to Nationals next week.  We are so proud of you Sam!!!  Then we journeyed to Joliet, IL and spent the night with my best friend Nichole and her girls!  We haven't seen the girls in a long time.  It was nice to hang out and enjoy some quality time together.  We worshipped at St. John's church in Joliet where Nichole serves as one of the pastors.  Then it was off to Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.  We spent two nights in Hyde Park and got to experience a little bit of the neighborhood.  We walked past President Obama's house which is not far from LSTC.  We spent some time with our friends The Schmit's...Mike and Kelli.  They were our host family for the few days we were at LSTC so we had a wonderful dinner at their apartment and time to catch up.  Sophia for the most part did really well.  Traveling to Joliet was a challenge but we made it.  Traveling back to Waterloo yesterday she did amazing!!!  We were all glad to be back home and back to our family schedule.  Carlos stayed with our friends the Reed's to take care of the dogs and of course go to school.  I'm not sure if he was excited for us to come home or not.  I think Carlos missed Sophia more than anything...

Now back to the grind and welcome to Lent.  Hopefully everyone has figured out what their Lenten discipline is going to be...I need to figure that out TODAY!!!