The Grand Canyon....God's Handiwork!

OK...get ready for A LOT of pictures!! On Memorial Day morning, we set off heading towards Arizona with destination -Grand Canyon! We decided to stop at Mesa Verde National Park since the boys have not gotten to go there yet and it was on the way. Remember, Mesa Verde is where the ancient Pueblo Indians carved their homes under the cliffs. This is the Spruce Tree House Dwelling........

You have to walk down into it and then back up so Pop and Mama Kaye made it a little ways down and decided they would just look at it from afar.....

So we walked on down to check it out....this was a self-guided tours with Park Rangers around that you could ask questions to....



This is Mason coming out of a Kiva that was underground......

The kids loved it!

We then journeyed on down to where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah all meet, called the Four Corners. There is a monument there where they all meet so that you can stand in all four states at the same time. Below are each of the kids taking their turn at being in all 4 states at the same time....

What we didn't know is that this is on Navajo land and they charge $3 a person to go to this spot!( and you are there all of 5 minutes!)


This was our first time to be in Arizona and boy do I pity the people that have to live there! The desert is pretty in it's on way but there's nothing for miles and miles. The soil is red and there are no trees...also when you do see a house, it is kind of pitiful.....the poverty from the Indians made me sad. Mike said that it reminded him some of Brazil. Here are some shots of the Arizona scenery.....


We made it to the Grand Canyon about at sunset time Monday night and it was amazing! breathtaking! incredible! Truly God's handiwork!

Now my idea of the Grand Canyon was that there was one spot you went to to view it. Reality is that there are 2 rims to view it from, the South Rim and the North Rim. We went to the South Rim and there are 20+ places to stop along the rim for the view. You could see the Colorado river down in it but it was so brown and dirty!

We spent the night at the Yavapai Lodge at the South Rim and spent Tuesday viewing more of the Canyon. Many of you have seen the glass platform over the canyon and NO...we did not go out on that because it is at the North Rim (thank GOD!)

I couldn't get a smile out of Mrs. Kaye because she was so nervous about being near the edge of the canyon! She was so funny out there and did better than I thought she would...

I kept taking pictures, trying to capture the beauty of what I was seeing but it was impossible. Each picture I took just didn't do it justice! You need to go see it for yourself!

Now I know it looks like Haven is on the edge in this picture but there is actually ground behind the rocks here. In case you didn't know, many, many children have fallen to their death while visiting the Canyon over the years....so sad. There were many places that we didn't let the children get near. Below is Landon being Clark of Lewis and Clark....

After leaving the Grand Canyon on Tuesday afternoon, we drove on to Grants, New Mexico, to spend the night. The hotel had an indoor pool and a hot tub so it was nice to relax after being in the car for two days. On Wednesday, we took Pop and Mama Kaye back to the Albuquerque airport and left in tears again as we said goodbye. Pop and Mama Kaye, thank you for a wonderful visit and awesome vacation!! We loved every minute of being with you!

A Canoeing we will go.....

Yesterday we went canoeing in the lake for a little while....Mama Kaye was very brave as she journeyed aross Lake Vallecito. It is still dreary and a bit nippy here.....

We had a great day at church today. Pop preached and did an awesome job, leaving everyone in tears as he talked about Angela's accident when she was 5, and how God is still God in the fears, tears, and cheers. I think they really like the church people here and told them the best thing about being here was not the mountains but the church family. One of the church members took all of us out to eat after lunch. After relaxing some, we all took a 2 1/2 mile walk to the "magic swing" for the boys to play on. Oh, I forgot to mention that the kids did sign art to the song "Untitled Hymn" today at the beginning of the service. There were 7 of them that participated and they did awesome! The congregation loved it as God used the children to bless their hearts! Also one of the kids that participated has only come to church twice (her mom has been wanting her daughter to come ever since we got here but told us she never would come herself)...her name is Olivia and she loves church! She is 6 and she asks so many questions about Jesus and wants to know more and more. After practicing for the sign art this morning, she started crying and saying that she didn't think her Daddy was coming to see her at church today but BOTH her mom and daddy came!! It was so exciting to see them there! You can't tell me that God doesn't use children to draw people to Him!!

So tomorrow we head out to the Grand Canyon!! We may stop at Mesa Verde tomorrow on the way but plan to spend the night at the Grand Canyon and spend the day there Tuesday. Check back for more pics of the trip!

POP and MAMA KAYE ARE HERE!

Pop and Mama Kaye made it here on Wednesday! Their flight went well and Mike and Landon picked them up in Albuquerque and made it here around 3:15p.m. Unfortunately, the sun has not been out since they've arrived and it's been overcast and cloudy. On Thursday, we showed them around the valley and drove up Middle Mt where there were fields and fields of dandelions. I didn't take my camera so I can't post pictures from that day but Mama Kaye did so maybe she will share them with you. Then they went to Thursday night bible study with us at church and got to meet some of the church family.

Yesterday, we all went to Silverton and Ouray which in Mama Kaye's description, were on "dangerous 2 inch mountain roads".....I wasn't sure she was going to make it but she did!! And boy, what a back seat driver she is!! Mike made her very nervous pointing out things and taking his eyes off the road. This drive is especially beautiful when snow is up there but most of the snow was gone. Also, the clouds were low and we couldn't get a good pictures with the mountains.

However, there were tons of waterfalls, big and small everywhere on the drive up so here are some pictures of it....

We ate in Ouray at the Goldmine and headed back to Durango for some downtown shopping. It has rained some but not the hard miserable rain...thank you GOD! Again today, it is cloudy but we are going to get a little canoe ride in before it starts raining......hopefully we won't end up in the icy lake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SYDNEY!!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY TO OUR NIECE SYDNEY OWEN!! SHE IS THE DAUGHTER OF MIKE'S BROTHER JEFF AND HIS WIFE DENISE. WE HOPE YOU HAVE A VERY SPECIAL BIRTHDAY SYDNEY! WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!!

The Church

So you may have noticed that Mike has not posted a blog in a looong time because he says no one's reading it due to lack of comments! Anyway, I know you are out there keeping up with our lives and saying prayers when we ask you to so I will give you an update about the church. Everything seems to be going well....the summer people are slowly arriving and all winter we had visitors every Sunday. Although they haven't joined officially, we have at least 6 new adults that come regularly, we had a salvation experience Sunday, and a baptism coming up from someone who has been saved but not baptized. We are averaging 8 children every Sunday so that is awesome! This small growth has taken forever because we of course want to see fast results but we will be patient and wait on God's movement.

We are currently preparing for a VBS kick-off where we will do one in the Forest Lake neighborhood (located between here and Bayfield and has 750 homes in it) and one here on two separate days. We will have the bouncy houses, carnival games, cotton candy, cook out, etc. Then we will conduct a VBS session every Tuesday for 10 weeks in hopes to incorporate campers that come in during the summer. We are doing Gospel Light's SON ROCK KIDS CAMP and what's sad is that we only have about 4 people besides us in the church that is willing to work with the kids....but God will supply and provided as needed.

Tonight we are meeting with two other couples to talk about small group hosting which will be starting up soon. On June 5th, I will be assisting Amy with starting a Teen night every Friday night for the teens in the Valley. Pray that God will prepare the hearts of the teens in the Valley and draw them to come and find out more about HIM.

While you are praying for that, PLEASE, PLEASE say a prayer about the sell of our house. We are getting pretty desperate and need for it to sell. GOD CAN SELL OUR HOUSE IN THIS ECONOMY....We can't but GOD CAN....we just really need for HIM to do it soon!! Thank you Shane and Bonnie Bowman for all your help in our house and for checking on it for us....you are the greatest!

Mike's mom and dad are coming tomorrow to stay a week and we are so excited!! We plan to go to the Grand Canyon for a couple days while they are here. Pray for a safe flight for them!

By the way, these picture were taken from our deck.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHLOE AND BRENLEE!!

OUR NIECES CHLOE AND BRENLEE HAVE BACK TO BACK BIRTHDAYS SO I AM GOING TO DO ONE ENTRY FOR THE BOTH OF THEM.....

CHLOE'S BIRTHDAY IS TODAY...MAY 18TH AND SHE IS TURNING 4 WITH A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PARTY WITH THE PRINCESSES AT DISNEY WORLD!!! ISN'T THAT AWESOME!! I AM SOOOO JEALOUS.....I WANT TO BE AT DISNEY WORLD RIGHT NOW!!! CHLOE IS THE DAUGHTER OF MY OLDEST BROTHER MIKE AND HIS WIFE JENNIFER. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE AND I KNOW IT HAS TO BE MAGICAL!!

Brenlee turns 12 tomorrow!! She is my brother Robby's middle child. She is so beautiful and smart, and lives in Sylacauga, AL. Happy Birthday Brenlee!!

(Again, I'm sorry for it being such a small picture....This picture was taken at Christmas and we didn't get this computer until January and the Christmas picture are not on here. I had to pull it from Snapfish.com and they come very small! Sorry!!)

Haven

The boys have been getting a lot of attention on here due to end of the year activities so I thought I would do an entry about Haven.....what a darling! If we all could adjust to this move like she has! She's just so happy-go-lucky all the time!

She just loves life and loves whatever we are doing at the moment. Her mouth runs ALLLLLLLL the time, especially when you're watching something you really want to hear!!
We have a beach volleyball court in the yard and she loves to play in the sand......

Her and Mason built this fabulous sand castle with a moat and all..........

She absolutely loves Lucee with that "hard" love....I'm surprised Lucee hasn't bit her yet! Isn't this a precious pic......

She spends her day just going with the flow....Her friend of choice right now is Tommy Jane who will start kindergarten in the fall. They play so good together and TJ is a very sweet little girl. However, Haven has lost that southern, "two syllabel in every word" talk she left Alabama with and now talks just like TJ! Mason and I don't like it but I guess we will keep her!

She said this morning "Momma, let's check my email!".....I asked her what color her eyes were the other day and she said "weazel" ..(Hazel)! Here's the video of her reading a book...so precious!

She just blesses our hearts!

The Great Rescue!!

Funny story.....On Mother's Day Sunday, we decided to go canoeing. All 5 of us PLUS the dog get in the canoe and we are off to a shakey start..(you know what I mean if you've ever been in one.)

So we are heading across the lake.......

And we see some friends on the other side and decide to go over and say HI.....

When we get near there, Lucee (the dog) sees their dog Rec and jumps out of the canoe and into the water!! Without a thought, LANDON then jumps out of the canoe and in to the water and saves LUCEE!! It all happened so fast! I said "Landon, I can't believe you did that!"...and he replied "I LOVE THAT DOG!" So funny! And we had so many witnesses that saw it all which made it even funnier! So we got them out of the water and our friends had a blanket in the car that we wrapped Landon and Lucee up in. Mike said "I think that it the best thing I have ever witnessed....a boy's love for his dog!". Our trip back across the lake was more uneventful (thank goodness!) because Lucee slept in my lap, wrapped up all the way back. Then the kids decided they wanted to play in the water some....but not for long because it was soooo cold!

Monday was award's day at school and Mason got the Citizen of Year award in his class and the Presidential Excellence award! We are so proud of him!

The only award given out in Landon's group was Citizen of the Year and while he did not get it, we also want to say how proud we are of the all A's he's made all year on his report card. They did not recognize academic awards in K through 2nd grade and we were a little disappointed for him and feel he should be recognized for all his hard work (as well as all the other ones that made all A's and B's). We're also proud of Landon for ending the year with a best friend (Joe) in his class and beating some of his classmates in tetherball!! (That's the game he hated when we got here because he didn't know how to play) Congratulations boys! We are soooo proud of you!