Mark

What is your favorite family vacation? Either from childhood or as a parent.

As a child we would travel from our Connecticut home to Myrtle beach and loved it.

As parents we would take our children to a small cabin on a lake - no tv, just a lake and lots of fun!

How about you?

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Mark Strohm, Jr.
Thrifty Times

PastorKristin

My favorite trip as a child changed my life. When I was 12 my family took a road trip from Washington State to Dallas Texas with a 2 day stop in Yellowstone National Park. While at Yellowstone I saw all these cool college students working in the dining room and hope that someday I would be able to do that too.

7 years later I did just that. I went to Yellowstone to work for the summer. I spent many hours praying and talking to the Lord on the mountain hiking trails in the park. If it hadn't been for the trip I took when I was 12 I would not have had the chance to go there and find out what the Lord had called me to do.

God is so good!

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The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Psalm 18:2

Mark

bump

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Mark Strohm, Jr.
Thrifty Times

Shannon

As a child I am torn between a couple of things. We always camped when I was younger and I can truly say that those were some of the best times of my life! We camped with several other families and it was a very tight knit group. And we didn't take TV, Nintendo - any of that. (Maybe a radio). The kids played outside, swam, rode bikes, hiked, etc from sun-up until bedtime. It was very wholesome.

We also took a big vacation every year. We went to places like the St. Louis Arch, Mt. Rushmore, The Grand Ole Opry (OK so I didn't appreciate that as much as the others), Branson, etc. I realize now how lucky I was to do that much traveling as a kid.

With my family - we took the kids to Wisconsin Dells this year and it was a BLAST! We left on a Monday morning and got home Friday. We spent three days at the Dells and then went to Milwaukee to the zoo...in FEBRUARY! It was actually a gorgeous day and we had so much fun seeing the animals! We didn't really plan anything out - if we saw something interesting, we stopped. It was a very relaxing fun trip.

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I can do everything through Him who gives me strength! Philippians 4:13

There are four things that are too mysterious for me to understand: an eagle flying in the sky, a snake moving on a rock, a ship finding its way over the sea and a man and woman falling in love. Proverbs 30:18-19

Effervescence

The last two years we've been going to our denomination's yearly family camp meeting at a beautiful campground in the middle of nowhere. It is definitely the best family vacation that I've ever gone on as a child or adult. I love it because it's very God centered, but not so structured that you don't get some family chill time. They have seperate services in the morning after breakfast for adults and the children, and then a family service in the evening. They usually have a music evangelist, as well as a speaker of some sort. In the children's services during the week they also learn and practice a song to perform at the 'big' Saturday night service, along with the teen choir that preforms all week. They have a big dining hall for all the meals, as well as a little 'snack shack' for during the day. The campground is on a lake, so there's swimming and canoeing during the day, along with an indoor pool (both have lifeguards). Another really great aspect is the affordability of it. Cabin rooms are about $100 for the week, and adults eat for the week for $100, and children are $50, so families that might not be able to afford a traditional family vacation are able to get one without going broke.

It's been 8 weeks since we got home from it this year, and I'm already looking forward to next summer.

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Jamie.