We Work, We Play, We Love Where We Stay!!

 Dylan loves Josiah. Keep that in mind as you browse this post.

 Dylan doesn't like this set-up, he wants to sit beside Josiah!

 Every evening calls for a pause just to watch the gorgeous sunsets over Albuquerque.

 What are they looking at? We would never tell!

 What is seen in NM, stays in NM!

 Okay, time to work. The boys start by cleaning the 'fish pond'.

 The men and more clean out the rock gardens. Watch out for cactus needles! And by all means, work on your tan, guys.

 Dave just opened the gate and blew the stuff back to the desert.

 We smelled a rat! Actually we saw a rat.( i'm calling it that for lack of knowledge of what really lives in the desert) He lives behind the fish pond and we will try and catch him. Hopefully it's not Ratatouille.He has too many friends.

 For lunch we had Reubens. The Stoltzfus's brought corned beef all the way from Booth's Corner and oh, boy, it was worth it!

  Notice we improved our seating arrangement. I told Josiah he has to keep both side open and available all the time. Poor EJ.... alone on his side. Maybe that's actually a benefit, huh?

 Whataya got, boys?

 It's a lizard!

 Settlers

 Workin' on supper

 Dylan's so hungry he can hardly wait.

 Good food! Marcy made a fabulous bean dip to go with Dave's elk burgers.

 Once again, the seating arrangements! It's great to be loved!

 Ds's are a big hit here. It's not hard to keep these kids happy.

Another Phillies game, and they won!

Gotta go, the men are taking us an a double date. Dave said to Lowe's but i have faith in E-man.

And Back to Albuquerque

 He loves me! I knew that, did you?

 Last evening we watched the sun go down, then star-gazed, and now of course, we got up at 5:15am to watch the sunrise over the canyon. We kept bumping into the same people at these natural wonders.

 Like i said, this place is exquisite. In areas that God created and that man added to.

 One of my motives of getting up each morning is coffee. Sharing it at 6am , quietly, with Dave is a bonus! An extra credit type of thing. Having a cranberry scone to share is just about more than i can bare. I'll possibly burst. I love our kids, but they don't like early mornings or coffee. I have a monopoly on this alone time with Dave. But eventually we realized we must go back to the cabin and wake them to head on down the road.......

 Yup, there's our road! It was long and straight at times, and almost boring except that the 6 of us were together in a car. How boring is that?!

After our lunch in Flagstaff, we veered off the most direct route to see what is at Slide Rock State Park.

 It was the sweetest playground you ever did see. Our Creator delights in delighting us. 

 100's of people were gathered here on a Monday afternoon, but there was plenty of room for all.

 The rocks were slippery and the water just swift enough to send you thru the shoots.

 And at certain places it was deep enough to jump off rock ledges. There's my Jumping Jos again!

 The 5 of them started at the upper edge and scooted, shooted, slipped, jumped, and swam their way down to the end of this unique park. We stayed for only an hour. As we left the park we talked about the fact that we have no such places in the East. But if we did, they'd be roped off and posted as 'Dangerous'! Out here everything is labeled: " Your safety is your responsibility."

We still have 6 hrs to home and must keep moving! E-man, Marcy, and family are joining us in Albuquerque today.

 Stopped in Sedona for gas.

Ahh! Almost 'home'. We put 1333 miles on that rental and now we look forward to relaxing and spending time with our friends here in Albu.

North Rim, Grand Canyon, AZ

 We arrived here on Sunday morning. This canyon is an awesome sight to behold! You cannot possibly imagine the vastness without standing here in person. I will not further try to explain, but just show you the pictures and leave it at that.

The lodge at North Rim is super pretty and right on the edge. We rented a small cabin and slept here one night. Since we did our big hike in Zion, we were not even a little bit in the mood! Dave, of course, was happy to go at his man-sized pace by himself. The rest of us relaxed and went out to a few small lookouts. The atmosphere is so calm and peaceful here!

 Another picnic planned and packed by the dad. He's good at these things!

 And then we met Denali Dan. He's traveling to 25 State Parks in 5 months and he takes pictures and puts them on FB. He lives in his little Geo there behind him. It gets 50 miles to the gallon, and even more when he drafts behind semi's!! He likes to keep it at 55mph. When asked where he sleeps, he said he doesn't, he passes out. Right over across the passenger seat, with the seat reclined, and so on and so on. I got the picture, altho probably not the same one he was painting. Interesting fellow, he was. From Michigan.

 Brooke, Jos, and I went out to Bright Angel Point. Brooke snapped a few pictures, looked at them and laughed and laughed............

 ....now we all know why!!! That's a real updraft, right there!

 We bought dinner tickets to a brisket bbq out in the woods. We were shuttled about a mile out the road and were entertained with singing and joking while we ate.

 We ate better than we have in awhile and the goal was to fill up enough so we wouldn't have to eat breakfast tomorrow! We'll see......

We rushed back to see the sunset over the canyon. It's impossible to capture such moments.

Later the dad and kids went back to the lodge porch where a ranger had a telescope set up. They tell me it was gorgeous!! They saw Saturn, rings and all. I missed out, but enjoyed hearing their excitement over the experience.