Winter moon and my girls

For my first blog I want to describe a wonderful northland adventure that my girls and I experienced.  Monday night we had the chance to go out to dinner as a family.  The girls had a blast and they even got their faces' painted at the restaurant's special event.  Since we ate early, we decided to run some errands.  We went to the church, grabbed the donations for the local food bank that the church members collected, and headed off to downtown Duluth.  Of course in Duluth the sun goes down very early in winter, but this night was a little different.

After we dropped off the food, my wife noticed how clear the sky was and that the moon was out shinning on Lake Superior.  We of course got into a debate as to what color the moon was.  She said it was pink and I said it was orange, the matter was never solved.  But as we argued over the color, the girls in the back of the van keep saying, "We can't see the moon."  As I pointed, they keep saying, "Daddy we can't see gets us to a place we can see!"  The adventure was on.

I knew a perfect spot they could see the moon, enjoy the darkness of the night, and feel the winter chill of snow and ice under their feet.  Off I was to Brighton Beach.  As we going away from downtown, finally I heard it, "Daddy we see it!  We see it!"  Then my wife chimes in, "Where are you taking us?"  I laughed, "You'll see."  As we got closer to Brighton Beach my wife looked at me as if I was crazy, but I wasn't.  In fact there were several other northlanders that had the same idea.

As we pull up to the ice covered beach on Lake Superior the cold was ever present and the moon shined proudly, even though we still debated the color of the moon.  I did a quick survey of who was going out to the ice with me.  My wife was out, Grace was asleep, and Abigail didn't want to leave the van, but Sarah and Rachel where up for the cold.  As we stomped through the snow, I thought I would loose one of them in the deep crunches of my foot steps.

We finally get to the edge of the ice and this is the view we saw.

Winter moon on Lake Superior

I know my iPhone camera doesn't do it justice, but with the low light darkness and the bright moon it was beautiful.  Then we move to the very edge.  I ran up the hill and almost slipped on the ice.  It is a good thing I have my ice lover legs, otherwise I would have ended up in the fridge waters of the Lake Superior.  This story would have definitely had a different out come.

The girls wanted to follow me, but being the protective dad, I only let them get so close.  I did of course have to scare Sarah by pretending to push her over the edge.  They want to remember this moment and insisted I take another picture.  As you can tell the wind was blowing and they did look like they were starting to get cold.

Winter moon and my girls

I was so proud of their adventurous spirit.  We had fun in the cold, but it was time to head back to the van.  I am so thankful to God that I can share these little moments of His beautiful creation with my girls.   I am thankful that they get to experience the wonderful northland that I enjoyed as a child.  I am even more blessed that God has called us to the northland to share His love and healing forgiveness of Jesus Christ with those in this beautiful land.

Lights of Duluth in the winter night