The Grand Canyon

Welcome to the Grand Canyon, Mr. Anderson. We've been waiting for you.
(Cait and I did a whole video series on this... once we get back to Dubai and I get it put together I'll put it on YouTube and post the video here).


A Raven.
"Quoth the raven - Nevermore!"


A squiddel.


Beautiful clouds and trees... okay, so this was from the parking lot...


Sunset on the Grand Canyon, south rim.

Sunset at the Grand Canyon was awesome. Well, definately less awesome than God, but even so reflecting his awesomeness.


Hopi Point.


Some pictures from our Hike. We went 600 feet down into the Canyon, and then back up. Took us almost 2 hours.

Cacti.

Cait and I reached the top 5 minutes before everyone else, but we were worn out and breathless when we got there - exactly an hour and forty-two minutes after we started.


A mule train we saw.


Look! As Cait said, A real cowboy!

Thing to the left won't be gotten rid of. Rawr.
After our hike, we drove down to Sedona, AZ, and stopped there for a while. I finished reading The Grand Canyon, A Different View, aloud to the family. Brilliant book. Read it, even if you'll never go to the Grand Canyon.

There's Cacti everywhere.

Well, we ate at Sweet Tomatoes, then went to the hotel, and got up in the morning to catch our flight to WA. We almost missed it, due to extremely long check-in lines. Thankfully, they let us through security - well, let us cut - so we could get to the gate. Praise God, everything - us and our luggage - all made it to the plane. We're back in WA, safe and sound, after some trouble with the rental car, confusion with a ticket for Cait's friend flying out here, lunch at Taco Time, and then a day at Gramma's, which I spent watching MASH with grampa, cleaning my cloak, shooting Nate's BB gun, and taking the bark offa a stick.

Well, ok, I'm really getting to bed now.
'Night, ya'll.

Over'n'out,
Kilo-Yankee

Four Corners and Monument Valley.

Owl Rock, Monument Valley.

Nate and Candace... they'll be giving out earplugs at their concerts, I hope.

Cait and her dreamcatcher. I love that picture.


Each of us 4 kids in a different state. Four Corners, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Arizona.


Me and my dreamcatcher. Love that picture, too.


One of my many "castles."


Little Colorado river (I think. I also know the little CO was where there was the greatest echo...)


Another castle-like rock.


Mexican Hat. See the sombrero?

Elephant's feet.


Long day of driving, pretty boring, until we got to our destination.
More tomorrow.

Over'n'out,
Ky

Mesa Verde.

The Mesa. Er, well, one of them.
The same one is below it.


Mesa Verde.


This is how it goes:


Daddy drives.
Mommy reads.
We listen, look, take pictures, and ask questions about what mommy just read.


It's gorgeous here.





Cliff Palace, the cliff dwelling we climbed down to. It was a blast. And now I'm hooked on learning more about the Anasazi, the people who built them.






Thought this looked like Legos.






Candace falls asleep on big brother Nate.






A picture. Hah. Don't know how to rotate them.





We've seen a lot of neat stuff. Now we're just driving. It's like a Chinese fire drill. Stop, get out, get in.








Armies and armies od dead trees. That's all there is for a ways. Charred and burnt, yet most of them are white.


White trees of Gondor.
Dead trees of Gondor.


It's sad. There are so many from forest fires. The trees. Dead.

It's like they're marching, parading across something. An army of dead trees, marching out to war. There are fewer now. They've gone.








Some ruins.






A Kiva, which was like a round meeting place kind of thing.



Sorry Nate, can't come.






This is where you'd grind corn.






Spruce Tree House. Pretty neat place.

More later, hopefully now, maybe tomorrow.

Over'n'out,
Kilo-Yankee

Downtown Denver and The Rocky Mountains

Long car ride, both little 'uns fell asleep. I tried to, but I've found trying to sleep in a car is worse than trying to sleep in an airplane. I got a good listen to David Crowder, though. His voice is getting less and less irritating.


Continental divide... we were excited to see snow.


Pretty...


Just a few of the clouds we saw.


Mountains and forest. Somewhere around here we saw Mule Deer.




Big plateau, with mountains all around it. Gorgeous.






Beautiful sun over a mountain... the clouds were spectacular, too.






I thought the mountain on the left looked like Ice cream of a sort...



From my "trail journal." We're spending the day on the road. So far we've stopped various places to take pictures, but we stopped at Buena Vista while watching white water rafters and eating lunch. We've been listening to Jonathan Park Volume II, and LOTS of country music.



Just some of the best pictures from driving over the Rockies. It took all day, with stops every now and then to take pictures and get gas.

These were supposed to be BEFORE the Rocky Mountain pictures, but whatever, eh?




Riding the light rail downtown.


We saw about... I think it was 5 Starbucks, maybe 6.


The State Capital.


The Brown Palace Hotel - possibly a hotel Ralph Moody and his family made curtains for (if you haven't read the Ralph Moody series, they're great family books we highly recommend the first is called "Man of the Family," I think).




After downtown, we got back to Uncle John's and the our second cousins and cousins once removed came, at least Annie, John, Jenny, and Jessie. That was pretty fun.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

PS- more comin' straight away.

The Sw's

Yes, I've finally gotten pictures onto the computer!

I had some fun with my camera and the kids of the family we stayed with...



Judson (6), the little theologian. He hated the camera, but I managed to get a few pictures of him, this one being the best. He used to be really into kilts, but no so much anymore.


Jonathan Christopher (2), my little buddy. He's absolutely adorable, but hates the camera even more than Judson, or at least won't hold still for it. This day at the beach I spent most of the time playing on the slide with him.


Jemmelie, aka Jemma, (almost 7) The only girl, extremely girly. She's one of Candace's best friends. Like most little girls, she was extremely photogenic and I had
trouble making her NOT smile and look at the camera.


Joshua (uh... somewhere between 10 and 12).
Joshua and I used to be really good friends... we
still play some, but not much anymore. He put
on a whole show for the camera.


Jacob (8). Nate's buddy. The way he and Nate
are together... you almost need to tie them down,
they're so crazy.


Now, I'll do as much as I can without pictures.

Wednesday ( a week ago) - We went to the beach with the Swifts. Josh and I had a water fight (just like old times...) I watched Christopher and helped Jakey, Josh, and Nate with their huge set of pools, waterfalls, tunnels, and dams near the edge of the water. We swam out to the dock, and then I was back to watching Christopher for a while. He's adorable.
After showering at the Swift's, we went to the Crocker's for dinner. Joy and I listened to country music, ate, and played around on the piano for a while. We were going to go play flashlight tag with Nate and Noah, but we had to leave.

Thursday - Traveled to Denver. Visited the Taylors for lunch, played with their two adorable dogs and jumped on the trampoline. Then we went to the Rayners, some people Cait used to babysit for. I sat with Mom, dad, Cait, Mr. and Mrs. Rayner for a while, but near the end Jack was showing me around the house and showing me some of his toys. We got to (great) Uncle John's and (great) Aunt Kay's, ate dinner, and then went to bed.

Well, next post needs some pictures, and the way blogger works, I'm gonna have to add them in on another post.

Ky

Worldview of a Five Year Old

Today Cait and I went over to the Rohde's for a fun time... Kayla and I talked for a while, then we ate and were talking with the older girls - Cait, Ashley, Jessica, Dayna, and Katie. Jessica taught us a song about a frog... uhh...
"Mm-eh went the little green frog one day,
Mm-eh went the little green frog,
Mm-eh went the little green frog one day,
And his eyes went mm-eh too.
Beep beep went the big red truck one day,
Beep beep went the big red truck.
Splat splat went the little green frog one day,
(something about his eyes no longer going mm-eh...)
Lick lick when the .... dog one day..."

Rats, I can't remember the rest of it.
Then we went up to Baskin Robbins and got a whole bunch of ice cream... you know, the carton ones you get there... 2 of those... and we ate most of it. Then we walked back and Kayla and I talked some and then watched the older girls play mau for a while. Then we had to go...

BUT the main reason I'm writing today is because of a conversation I had with Judson - the 5 year old where we're staying. It started out with him saying something about "We're supposed to love your enemies..." then him saying "I have Jesus in my heart because I go to Church." I explained that we had to believe - and here he cut me off and very seriously told me what we as Christians believed. I was like, WOW. My 6 year old sister doesn't know this stuff very well. And the way he said it - I could tell he really knew it. You wanna know how he closed? "And He's real, too."

Well, think about that for a while. I thought it was pretty cool.


I'll post my comments on Gregor the Overlander and such, but be warned that there is a spoiler. A very BIG spoiler... well, kinda.


Well, I closed the book and just sat there. Totally different ending than I'd expected. I'd just spent the whole book thinking of other ways... like that the warrior was someone different in this case, it was paralleled with the monster... you know. I still don't fully understand how the whole "when the warrior has been killed"/breaking of the sword thing worked out. What else... I cried when Thalia died... but I didn't when Ares did - I just felt sick. I guess it's mainly cuz Hazard (along with Lizzie and Mareth) is my favorite character. Overall, I loved them. However... there was definately too much between Luxa and Gregor. WAY too much. MAYBE if they were 17. But at 12? No. So, those are my thoughts.

---

Kilo-Yankee

Saturday-Monday

Lots of get togethers....

Saturday I went to Emily's... at first we jumped on the trampoline - yes, in the rain. We were thoroughly soaked by the time we got off. After a little while Naomi came and we talked, ate, and then went up to the park where we ran around in a field with Emily's dog, Diego. That dog is MASSIVE. When we got back, we were playing outside, then we watched about 20 minutes of TTT, then ate dinner (er, they did, I wasn't feeling too good). We went outside and were playing out there... we must have looked pretty funny - me in my cloak, Emily and I in skirts, it raining out, all of us running around and shouting, and all of us carrying "weapons."
It was fun.

Note to self: make more larps, but play around with how you make them... double bladed one, lighter weight...


Sunday we went to both Churches; English and Arabic. Daddy spoke at both, so now I've heard about all our stuff about 50 times - at people's houses and at Churches... well, not quite 50, but still. After the Arabic service, we went to the Nasr's. Nicole and I mostly played with Grace, Faith, and Candace, but we did talk some.

Monday morning I went to Anna's. When I first got there we talked and showed each other art work, then I showed her some pictures. We ate lunch and ran around outside for a bit, then Leah came and we talked for a bit, then went outside and were playing around with Leah's camera. We got some pretty neat pictures. (which Leah will be posting some of on her blog... see link over on the side). We talked inside for a while, and then went to the Oasis Memorial Day picnic. Where we basically just talked and walked around a bit... and I blew grass whistles. And tried to make a truce with Paul... *shakes head* What did I get for trying to be friendly? "Truce denied, it's too much fun being enemies." I guess we never agree on anything anyway, not even what kind of grass you use to blow grass whistles.

I've been totally emersing myself in the Underland for a few days now, I'm almost halfway through the fifth book. The fourth and fifth are my favorites. But I won't know if the fifth is my favorite until the end, I s'pose.


Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee