Road side stops

We've done a lot of driving across I-40 the past couple of years. Like most interstates, it has those little road side stops that we've always wondered about. Have you? Usually, I'm trying to go 12 hours a day so we barely have time to go to the bathroom, let alone stop at one of these places.

But this trip we decided to stop at a few and check them out. The first one was SCARY. It was not the one above, but it had tons of odd mannequins and dinosaurs out front. And why do so many of these places have dinosaurs? They don't sell dinosaurs. There's nothing about dinosaurs inside. There is no relationship with dinosaurs and the SW. Strange. In any case, we stopped and saw some crazy looking ostriches penned up outside. They seemed like they could be featured in the next Mad Max movie. We lost our nerve and moved on.

The second place was actually quite nice inside. Lots of trinkets. If I was single, I probably would have spent $10 on some worthless souvenir like my boys wanted to do. Andrew was dying to buy a wood gun that shoots rubber bands by pushing on a clothes pin. High quality engineering. You know what else is surprising? These places are very busy. There were quite a few people stopping by and looking. I guess we're all a little bit curious.

A Grand Canyon

I went to the Grand Canyon when I was a kid. I can't remember it, but I have a picture before the days when you could photoshop it in the background so I know it's legitimate.

I'm not sure how you could forget this, but somehow I did. The one thing that struck me was how the Canyon looked like a picture. It was odd. We were there. It was real life. But it looked like a picture.

I wasn't sure how the boys and girl would react to it. Andrew and Emery were quite impressed. My favorite response was Matt's - he was following us to the first lookout point. As is typically of a 7 year-old boy, all he could focus on was the path about 5 feet around him. Then all of a sudden, he looked up and saw the canyon and said, "Whoa!" God's creation amazed him.

We even did a little hiking down into the canyon. It was just a few minutes, but little kids and the edge of the canyon were not a good mix so we didn't go far.

It was a fabulous day. And it was Emery's birthday when we went. She turned 6 at the Grand Canyon.

Flagstaff

After barely getting settled into our new house, we went on a little trip to Flagstaff, AZ. We planned this trip months ago, before we knew we were buying a house. It was kind of odd timing. But in God's sovereignty, He knew we could use a week in the mountains.

The elevation of Flagstaff is close to 7,000 feet. But unlike Albuquerque, it's forest not desert. This was the view out of our hotel balcony. Not too shabby, eh?

On top of the lovely forest, we also had high mountain peaks - the San Francisco peaks going up to 12,000 feet. I spent every morning out here, eating breakfast and reading my Bible. It was a great place for my quiet time.

The boys and girl liked eating outside too. We ate quite a few meals out here.

We even got to catch a few sunsets. You can practically see the peace and relaxation, can't you?

Workout

The boys and girl are really into fitness for some reason. Sandy and I workout some, but nothing like they pretend to workout.

Unsolicited, they started with some pushups.

Then they did warm-ups.

Phew! What a workout!

Happy 4th

Today was a low key 4th of July. Nothing like the festivities last year at the Van Gundy's - we miss you guys! We just did some sparklers in the backyard.

Andrew definitely enjoyed the smoke and sparkle.

Matt was trying to kill ants. And Emery was scared as usual. But even though it was such a super low key evening, the boys and girl still had fun. I really am so thankful that they enjoy whatever we do together as a family.

Joy

Why is Emery so funny? Her laughter, smile and joyous spirit are so infectious.

She dresses up all the time.

She love to do her hair in so many different ways. I swear we are not trying to make her into the next Punky Brewster. I don't even like Punky Brewster. I never watched Punky Brewster. Really, I didn't.

She does the funniest things, like sleeping with her own eye mask.

And she loves candy and everything candy can do for you.

Thanks!

Our move would definitely not have been possible but for the service and help we received from many in our new church family. I am very thankful and appreciative of their kindness to us in our time of need.

I am also thankful for Sandy's parents who flew out to help in so many ways as well. From packing to unpacking to fixing things, they were instrumental to getting us settled so quickly.

They also had a lot of fun with the boys and girl. Emery had a ton of fun with grandma.

She was treated like a queen too. What a princess!

Andrew showed off his skills to grandpa.

More photos of our new place are coming soon, I think. But we are very thankful to God for our new place!