Sorry -- We've been busy with no internet!!!

OK, so we got here two weeks ago today with no furniture, no nothing. We slept on air matresses and pool floats and grilled hot dogs for three days. Then the moving van arrived and we have been trying to dig our way out from under the boxes since. We just got internet hooked up Thursday evening. long time, no posts. Sorry. Well, we are close to unpacked,Marcia and Roger have come and gone and Chelsea (my mom) should be here Wednesday. We had a wonderful visit with Brandon's parents, I got all my finishing touches done (almost) to start my job, found a gym where Elijah can continue gymnastics, and discovered that the elementary school that we are zoned for is on a year round schedule!!!!! So, most likely Mia and Elijah will start July 2nd, unless we can get a transfer to another elementary close by that is on a traditional schedule. We looked very closely at the schools in the area and chose our home because the schools are so great here, somehow we missed the year round schedule part of it. Anyway, we spent the day at the beach today and had a wonderful time enjoying Gods gorgeous creation. The waves were ENORMOUS and frankly scared me, as Emily, Elijah and I were tumbled about in them. In all the water sometimes it was hard to know which way was the ground. We all survived and ate dinner in Laguna beach at a great little pizza place. I will get some pictures posted soon. Hope all is well with everyone reading this!

Love, all of us

Grand Canyon

We started out this morning in Kayenta Arizona after a fairly restful night, between Phoebe meowing and Mia waking up and Emily Talking in her sleep. We packed up the car after another fabulous continental breakfast, and headed toward the Grand Canyon. As we were getting ready to pull out we realized that are camera was not charged (I had fallen asleep the night before--hence the short post this am as we were trying to check out). Brandon nailed it when he observed that we are probably the only family that, on the morning they are supposed to go to the Grand Canyon, have a camera battery that is uncharged!!!! Fortunately we actually did have an AC adaptor for the car and were able to charge it up on the way. After coming to the outskirts of Tuba city where we stopped for a bathroom break, we realized that due to and extra night in ARKANSAS and 1/2 a day of car trouble in Amarillo, Phoebe was out of drugs!!! So we inquired at the gas station as to the whereabouts of a nearby vet, and they actually new of one on a first name basis. So, we took a short detour, visited a groovy vet and got Phoebe fixed up for the next few days. Trust me, we tried to not medicate her out of Gallup and an hour into the drive, she was CLAWING the crate. So, she's good to go now. So out of Tuba City and on the road. Meanwhile the views outside are indescribable--really. The canyons and the desert and the vegetation were all so amazing, so foreign. The scenery would go from crazy red monuments towering out of the earth, to peach colored, wind blown rock formations that looked like giant scoops of silly putty that stood beside striated bluff or canyon walls. we passed on our left some of the Painted Desert, although it all looked painted to me. Sometimes I felt like we were driving on the surface of marz. What was most striking I think, was the scarcity of many manmade marks. usually, but not always there were power lines, but other than that there were hardly any gas stations, fastfood restaurants or businesses. Unless we came into a town, about every 25-50 miles, the land was untouched. Now most of it is reservation land, Navajo and Hopi, and maybe that was why. In anycase it was both breath-taking beautiful and eerie at the same time. The exception to human imprint was the Navajo homes we saw scattered, even in the most desolate of places. These homes were always accompanied by a Hogan, a sacred sort of structure that I don't know much about, but would like to learn. After Tuba City we came to Cameron, where I went into a trading post with our elder two and Brandon and Mia napped in the parking lot. This place was full of everything and anything southwest or Native American, but I had a fun time pointing out to the children how many of these items were made in China or from another state. After getting out of there with only one minor melt down we were almost to the Grand Canyon. The terrain changed to a pinon forest, but not before we saw a small preview--The Colorado River Gorge. We drove on through the Forest and paid or 25$ fee, went into the park and around a corner .....














What else can I say except that if you have not seen it--get there, any way you can. It is so spectacular it doesn't even seem real, even in real life, it is as the kids said yesterday AWESOME. We took time to point out to them that while describing these creations, by a hand not of man, awesome actually is accurate and appropriate. It is beautiful beyond words. Thank You God for delighting in us in such a way as to give us these works of divine art simply to amaze us. Looking at he canyon and the magnificent scenes in the deset really does instill in us just how big and powerful He is, and how amazing it is that He knows each one of us by name. It's overwhelming.

Monument Valley

We started in Gallup NM. Weather was chilly, windy and overcast. Just outside of Gallup, we headed north on 491 and into the Navajo Nation. We drove through Shiprock and saw the "Shiprock", a volcanic core. We could only see it from a distance which was disappointing to Elijah since he wanted to climb it. This was really a blessing because the Navajo believe it to be sacred and don't allow anyone to climb it. Next we went on to Four Corners monument, where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah all arbitrarily come together. It was pretty funny to be standing there in the middle of nowhere on this one little spot of such "significance". Elijah walked on his hands through all four states and we got Phoebe out for a moment of excitement.

The rest of the day we spent driving through Monument Valley and were just continuously awed by the landscape. We took 5 million pictures, which will not all fit here. I will post the best of the best later, but here is Mexican hat and a few other crazy monuments. On to the Grand Canyon.

We got Elijah a flute at the four corners monument and this guy, Travis Terry, was at our hotel. He is world famous flute player. He has done (written or played) music for Braveheart, The Last Samurai among others. He gave Elijah a little lesson and some great pointers. Really amazing guy.

Texas to New Mexico

We started the morning off in Texas style with Texas shaped waffles (No kidding, see picture) at our Days Inn breakfast. After eating we returned to the rooms and packed up, had family conflict while waiting for the elevator which worked nicely for us because then we had the elevator to ourselves. AFTER checking out Brandon discovered that the van would not start. After a couple hours of combined phone calls, waiting, visits from AAA roadside (or hotel side) assistance, we ended up at Auto Zone with Lupe our super nice Auto Zone guy and a brand new battery. Take notes here guys. If ever driving across country and have several hundred dollars worth of work done on your car before you go--Do make sure that somehow in all the checking and "routine maintenance", somebody checks your BATTERY!!! So we leave Auto Zone forgetting to get something to fix the tail light cover that we noticed was about to fall of yesterday, and take Lupe's advice to get the alternator checked before we head out across the desert. By God's Grace and Lupe's connections we met some nice guys at S&L automotive who told us out alternator was just fine and we were good to go. Believing this to be true since usually mechanics have not much to gain by telling you nothing needs to be done, we set out for Gallup NM. We really were amazed once again at God's goodness to us in allowing this to happen outside our hotel, where AAA could get to us quickly and we could go into AC and water was readily available etc, etc. This could have been truly disastrous if it had happened somewhere remote, hot and dry. We once again were keenly aware that He really does hem us in from behind and below and He really does lay His hand upon us each and every moment of every day. Driving out of Amarillo I was stunned to see that I thought the land was flat and barren yesterday. Today took the cake. It was flat, barren, dry and mostly lifeless, not pretty in even the least. It was truly uninhabitable, as was the case since there was rarely a home in sight. This didn't last too long though and once we got to New Mexico, the landscape became Awe Inspiring. Again, pictures can't do it justice, but they are still a glimpse. Once in NM we came to a rest stop and a realization that we were now minus one tail light cover. Here we are driving down the road dirty dusty van, dirty dusty family, odd pieces of luggage strapped down on the top of the van and my roots showing. Oh yeah -- with a Tennessee license plate. I was beginning to wonder if they would let us in the La Quinta. Anyway, the rest of the drive was beautiful, We ate a wonderful dinner at a groovy Mexican place in Albuquerque and coasted on in to Gallup, where we are all snuggled down and asleep, (except me) and resting up for our sightseeing tomorrow. We are now officially on vacation.

Well, my eyes are droopy. Time for bed.

Kelly and everybody else

long day

long day today. Finished Arkansas, went through Oklahoma and ended in Amarillo Texas. No major excitement thanks to God! We spent about 10-11 hours in the van, and aside from a little bickering all went well. We got to watch the sunset on the Texas Panhandle, which was really cool. As usual, everyone is asleep but me and I am getting very sleepy so tonight's post will be short, in fact this is about it. i'll let the pictures speak for themselves. I must say that the landscape did change drastically today. I now know what "Amber waves of grain" means. Texas is beautiful, in a stark and barren way. The pictures are OK, but words and pictures can't really convey the perspective. Everything was so wide open and borderless. To understand the immensity of it and the enormous amount of nothing, you would have to experience it. I hope the pictures at least give some idea. Enjoy.

Kelly

Arkansas

The day started wonderfully. We woke up after a great nights sleep in Aunt Frans cozy home. She fed us her famous breakfast including coffee, oatmeal (Aunt Frans slow cooked secret recipe), biscuits with or without sausage or jelly and to top it off--FRESH squeezed OJ.

YUM YUM. After this we said good-bye and hit the road. We headed out on I-40 west, crossed the Mississippi and officially left the EAST behind according to my geographer husband. The land is the delta and is flat but fertile. Crops included rice and lumber and more rice. The weather prediction for the day was fair except for a line of storms with wind gusts in the 80 MPH range that we would probably run into around Little Rock. as we approached it we could see the sky getting darker and were thankful that all we had to do was drive. The kids actually kind of like it because it makes the inside of the van seem snug. Just after skirting Little Rock we needed a potty break, as did the cat, or so we thought. We forgot the vet had told us she could go 8-12 hrs. We pulled into a McDonalds/truck stop in Maumelle, Arkansas (French for nightmare). This is where Phoebe Houdini'd out of her harness and made a break for it, medicated and all.

After hours of calling for her, meowing for her and crawling in and out of mosquito and spider infested brambles, We considered giving up. We registered her on a lost pet web site, gave all our contact info to the locals (whose overwhelming response was "it's just a cat", which only made me bawl more) and were about to hit the road. Brandon convinced me that we should stay one night in this place and hope for the best, plus he had pinky promised Mia. We left a towel and some food in the spot where she had last been seen (pictured above), and went to drown our sorrows at waffle house. It was here that we came to realize that We had to give Phoebe to God, after all, He had given her to us. By the time we left we all had some peace about the situation and were thankful that we could count on the truth...that somehow

1. This was God's plan for us and Phoebe and in that it was the best thing for us

2. it would ultimately bring Him glory

So OK the plan was to check a couple more times tonight and in the morning, and then head on--Having had a lengthy and tumultuous detour here in Maumelle. We crossed the street back into the McDonalds parking lot and I got out to check. His plan was for Phoebe to be with us at least one more day. She was there.

So now, again my family is sleeping, tired not from a day of driving and travel, but a day of having to trust and wait on the Lord, but Oh how it builds Faith. We saw how it built faith in our family. I was listening to someone the other day talking about trial, and she said "it's never the trial that makes you stronger, it's what you do with it".

Tomorrow we hope to make up for today and travel to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. 11 hours. Needless to say Phoebe will not be let out, I'm hoping maybe the kids and I will. Please continue to pray, we are so thankful.

Love and miss you all

The Leagues, Brandon, Kelly, Emily, Elijah, Mia and Phoebe.