Starve Rock Extravaganza

Now back to our spring break rerun. Geez we're a little behind. Soon we'll be updating our spring break story while we're into the summer. By now we've had two different sets of visitors; the Dilbecks and Lawheads and then only a few weeks after that my sister came to visit (Kindra). We have plenty of pictures from that so we need to get to crackin so I can post about those too. 

Over spring break we went to this really cool place called Starved Rock. Our super generous professor and his wife from Moody had us house sit for them, and let us use their car the whole time they were gone. That was such a treat. We went all over. This place is only about two hours out of Chicago. It's basically known as the only place in Illinois with any type of hills (hahaha). Needless to say, the 500 foot elevation wasn't really doing it for me. But it was still pretty and we got to hike, eat, take pictures, and enjoy one of the few sunny days we've had out here since the end of the summer/beginning of the fall seasons. 
There were a lot of great sites to see while we hiked around. That is the River.

Whose that handsome man

There were a lot of waterfalls that you could hike to. We saw two of them. When you come after summer time they're usually all dried up so it was cool to see them running. They're not too big though so we walked around them and behind them. We're standing inside of a big overhang and behind the waterfall in this picture.

 

No matter where we go he finds somewhere to surf

 We even saw a random field full of Turkeys. We thought of you dad leih. Later on I had a long conversation about the turkeys with him and the one time he took Kindra and I turkey hunting and we slept in the back of his truck on a mattress. Back in the day when we were small enough to all fit back there. We also ate spaghetti that we had cooked over the fire. I remember thinking that was the best part because we didn't get to see any turkeys. You have to be really quiet for turkey hunting. I don't think we were. :)

All in all it was a really fun trip and super good to get out of the city for a day and just be in the sun. We had a great time. We even got to check out the hunting lodge up there. There ya go dad now we know where we'll stay when you come. :)

We interrupt this Spring Break series...

We're in the thick of things with our classes. Lately I've been trying to take in as much as possible, applying what I've been learning on a more personal level. The great thing about where we're at in school is that everything we're learning feels applicable. Jeremy and I think about our future in ministry often and how we want to shape our family and lives around truth and the calling that the Lord has on our lives. Without getting too corny, I wanted to share a story with you from a book I've been reading called From Fear to Love. It's from one of my counseling classes and it addresses the cycle that we get into when we let our fears allow us to move to control and then supercharge our control with anger. This story is in the chapter on overcoming our fears in a section called "Learning to be Real". It actually is taken from a children's story called The Velveteen Rabbit. Margery Williams describes what it means to become real... 

"What is Real?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become REAL."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," He asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are REal you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

What the story relates is that vulnerability is the key to love, that risk is involved in becoming REAL.

Parts of a Heart of Spring Break

Plain and Simple there were many parts to our spring break... lots of adventures and trips and get togethers that made up the heart of our spring break. So I'm going to break up our spring break into several blogs instead of making it one long one. Plus that means it will take me less time to write each blog which means it will be more likely that I'll actually update our blog :) Plus for all you mothers of the Allen family members out there, more exciting blogs to wait for in great anticipation. 

The bench we were engaged by

Over break we were blessed to be able to house sit for a professor at moody that Jeremy TA's for. They let us use their lovely home, and their car. It was a great excuse with all our free time to try and get out of the city. One of our first trips (besides to the grocery store) was to ITASCA. This is where we got engaged, a forest preserve in the suburbs. It was such a rare warm day for early spring in Chicago that we knew we had to jump on the chance to get outside and away from the city. It was a small day trip but we took snacks, our kite, and our camera and very adventurous spirits.

 It took us a while to get the kite in the air. but once we did it stayed up for the entire time we were relaxing on top of the hill. It's a beautiful view of the preserve from there and the little red bench makes me happy. Every one was so impressed by our kite flying skills. But I have to say our kite flying record is not so great. But ever since Gma Leih has bought us this kite, our record has greatly improved. So thanks GMA! 

Our day in ITasca was totally relaxing. Everything we could have wanted it to be. We did a lot of little things around this time at the beginning of our break as well. We really spoiled ourselves in terms of food. I took Jeremy with me to Trader Joes on shopping day and he gets quite excited there. We cooked a lot in the BIG kitchen we were so blessed with and actually watched a lot of movies in the evening because they had a TV at their house (which we don't, that's how we like it). But it was a unique little treat. I maybe went over board on the cooking band wagon making pico de gallo, granola bars, mini cupcake tarts, and many other yummy treats. I couldn't help myself with so much counter space and some great cooking supplies. Although she didn't have a kitchen aide, I must say thanks to our uncle Time and aunt Marie Helene we really have it made when it comes to mixing things :)


We'll I'm beat. We have some good friends out visiting that we've been spending all our free time with touring the city and eating great food. In fact we just got back from eating dessert in a restaurant on the 96th floor of the Hancock Tower with a great view of the night lights of the city. Lots of laughs this weekend that's for sure. It's been so good to have them here. But one things for sure it makes us miss our families even more. We're so ready for a summer in California. Recently a skype a week hasn't even been enough. We really miss all of them and can't wait for our grand reunion. Although My sister is coming in only a matter of weeks!!! That is exciting for sure. 


My eyes are drooping so I will say until again when we bring you another piece to the heart of our spring break. 

Makes me smile