Amazing Journey part 3

From Tucson, we planned to drive to Sedona, spend the night, hike around and then head to the Grand Canyon. A couple hours into our drive, the van lost power...by God's grace we were able to restart the van twice and made it to a service station where we were told the fuel pump was bad and would take all the next morning to fix. I have admit I stressed for a bit knowing we wouldn't get to do anything in Sedona and knowing that it is hard to find a hotel to accommodate our family. God completely took care of the details and I was able to settle in realizing God must have a purpose for this detour. We spent the next day swimming and relaxing before getting back in the van to drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Ah, the Grand Canyon. I've been to a number of places in the States and abroad and yet I really think my favorite place is the Grand Canyon. For those of you who haven't been there - find a way to go! It is so humbling to stand at the edge of this HUGE canyon and be filled with the awe of how infitinely GINORMOUS God is. I just love it. Add the hiking and the views and you have what I think is one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Before we left for our vacation we spent 2 weeks studying some of the animals we would find here and flood geology. Flood geology is essentially a literal understanding of Noah's flood and the way it would have changed the face of the earth. The Grand Canyon is an amazing testament to God's power and how sin changed not only our relationship with God, but the very face of the earth forever.Time for a kid quote. Andrew and I spent some real time talking to our kids about the dangers of the Grand Canyon. People really die here every year because they take risks and do things that aren't too smart. At one of the overlooks, we saw a guy climb up onto a stone "wall" along the edge in order to get a better picture. In shock, Alyssa pointed her finger and yelled, "Look Mommy! That guy's bein really stupid!!"

We hiked part way down Bright Angel Trail and our kids did fantastic!! They were having a great time hiking down, but different people we passed saw the size of our kids and kept telling us to head back up. We had wanted to hike to the 1 1/2 mile point, but eventually we decided that maybe we should start listening to the people and turn around. At one point during the hike back up, Alyssa looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I can't take one more step." I gave her a bunch of praise and encouragement and moments later she started singing Sunday School songs (loudly) and that kept her happy the whole rest of the hike up. We were so proud of our kids we rewarded them with the most expensive ice cream cones we have ever purchased. The black arrow is my best guess as to how far down we got.

Mother's Day we drove and hiked along the East Rim. We stopped at one of the views and read the Biblical account of the flood. Lucas commented how perfect it was that we read about the flood at the Grand Canyon. He's very quick :). You might notice two verse plaques that I took pictures of in the collages. We made it a bit of a treasure hunt to find these plaques. There are actually 3 of them at different locations, we were able to find 2. We ended our Grand Canyon time at Desert View eating a packed lunch looking at the huge expanse of the Canyon to the west and the flat surface of the Painted Desert to the east. Beautiful. I'd go back in a heart beat.