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.