Go. Be. Do.

On one of our visits to the Georgia Aquarium, I captured a moment of the boys' fascination with the jellyfish.  Alex had tilted his head to get an even better look at how the jellyfish moved. I find this exhibit one of the most relaxing and awe inspiring of the entire aquarium.  Standing there I find myself getting lost in the swaying movements of the jellyfish...and, for a moment, all is at peace.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ~Deuteronomy 6:5 (NIV) That is why the L ord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the L ord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish. ~Joel 2:12-13  (NLT) I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the L ORD . They will be My people, and I will be their God because they will return to Me with all their heart. ~Jeremiah 24:7  (HCSB) LORD, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you. ~1 Chronicles 29:18  (NIV) Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the L ORD when you heard w...

View of Denali from Anchorage July 2010

Sunday we arrived in Yosemite National Park.  It was somewhere in the 60's and partly sunny.  Not too bad of a start to the day.  There was a whole new land awaiting our exploration over the next two days.  I remember thinking that if the rest of the park was as beautiful as the drive in, it was going to be awesome!  At one pullover spot we counted six waterfalls we could see from where we stood.  Later on, during one of the evening Ranger progrmas, it was disclosed that all the waterfalls we saw now would be dried up by late August.  That just didn't seem possible...but, it also didn't seem possible that it would ever warm up enough for people to enjoy the swimming pool they have in the park, either.  If you saw and heard the amount of water flowing over these falls, you would have a hard time believing that just like I did.    Only as I posted these first two pictures here back to bac...

Now, where was I on this tale of tales?  Oh, yes, just leaving Death Valley...finally.  I must say that I quoted Psalm 23 several times throughout our journey in DV...especially the part, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...".  It just fit. On the outskirts of Death Valley, you run into what almost seems like a ghost town.  It's a mining town.  If the mine ever leaves, it will be a ghost town.  There are actually two little towns that rely on the mine for existence.  I was saddened by the conditions in which people lived.  Maybe they are happy there; one could only speculate.  It was almost creepy as you drove through...very depressing to say the least.  I was very happy to find ourselves in Ridgecrest with running water, a RiteAid, and a really good Mexican restaurant.  Yes, it was good to be among the living once again. We enjoyed the continental breakfast in our hot...

Upon the boys receiving their Junior Ranger/Paleontologist bagdes from Ranger Ron at the Grand Canyon, we head out for the Hoover Dam.  Maybe I was tired, maybe because it was a week ago (or a little of both), but I don't remember much about the drive or scenery between the two places until we got to the Route 66 signs.  By then, the scenery reminded me alot of what we saw on our road trip last year, but it was more interesting because we were on Route 66.  Historic Route 66.  And, Tim promptly took his Cars cars out of his backpack and started playing with them right on cue.  I was the one to choose the dinner stop, so I naturally chose the Route 66 Diner.  It was great food and alot of fun sitting at the counter with the boys on those infamous spinning stools. :) For this trip, I did something I don't often do...I brought the camcorder.  Really, it was probably more of a burden than a blessing, but time will tell after we watch the movies o...

There's comfort in the familiar...but there's excitement in the new.  As the days counted down to this trip, it was hard to contain my excitement.  As we were wrapping things up in Phoenix, getting ready to head north to the Grand Canyon, it was hard not to smile. In a few hours I would be standing on the rim of a mile deep, 277 miles long, and up to 18 miles wide canyon. The Grand Canyon. As a very flambouant Ranger Ron put it, there is only one Grand Canyon.  It's not the grand canyon of someplace.  It's The Grand Canyon.  Period.  It's the Canyon that other canyons want to grow up to be like.  On our way in to the park, I started wondering if it would be as grand as it's name.  We had come all this way, made a long drive sort of out of the way to just see it.  "What if's..." kept running through my head.  Those doubts couldn't dampen my excitement, though, but for only a second.  Then I'd be smil...

We awoke rather early that first morning of vacation...it was nice and cool as we prepared for our day.  We had a light breakfast at the hotel coffee shop basically by ourselves due to the early rising hour.  We strolled by the pool to check the water temperature and see the new waterslide awaiting our attention.  It looked so inviting!  On went our stroll around the resort, taking time, of course, to stop and smell the roses along the way.    Our room came with complimentary driving range passes and golf cart access, so we took the boys out for a morning golf adventure before the heat of the day came.  I joined in on the fun at the driving range and in spite of using junior right handed clubs it was alot of fun.  After enjoying the cool morning of golfing, we let the boys go swimming and try out the waterslide before heading over to Scott's great aunt and uncle's house for a visit and lunch. There are two kinds of family gathe...

On my birthday, we had a whirlwind of a day!  Finished our last day of school in the morning and by 2:30 pm we were in the airport all checked in for our flight to Phoenix to begin our 8 days of vacation.  Because it's a 3 hour time change from ATL to PHX, my birthday indeed lasted 27 hours...and I loved every minute of it!  Having missed our normal dinner hour while in flight, we went out to celebrate, once we landed.  Needing to find something convenient to where we were, we settled on Ruby Tuesdays.  They brought me a plate of cupcakes at the end of our meal...two carrot cake and two Red Velvet.  The carrot cake cupcake I had was delicious!  Poor Alex was suffering from exhaustion and a stopped up ear from the landing.  Tim, exhausted as well, fell asleep on the way to our hotel, The Wigwam, and didn't even remember getting on the golf cart for a ride to our room from the parking lot even though he was alert enough to walk over to the golf...

 Grand Canyon Lake Mead  Hoover Dam ByPass Bridge   Dante's View in Death Valley   Zabriskie Point in Death Valley    Lake Isabella    King's Canyon     Silver Lake  Lake Tahoe