Experiences from our trip

I've been catching up on things at home since we've returned. I've been wanting to share with you about the trip we took last week with our church group.

We left Thursday, June 4 after my hubby got off work to go to my Mom's house for the night. Friday morning Caleb went with her to school (it was their last day and there weren't many kids). We headed to Lubbock and stopped on the way in Abilene for lunch. We went by ACU and found a new cap for hubby.

We continued on our way and saw many of these filling the horizon. Caleb loves watching them. He calls them "energy" because last year on the trip we talked about how they were used to make energy.

We stayed with my Dad Friday night in Lubbock, TX. Caleb got to feed the ducks at a local pond with Grandad. Then Saturday morning we took him to the Kids Workshop at Home Depot and a little festival hosted by a local hospital where he got to go across a little lake in a paddle boat. After lunch we continued on our way, stopping in Clovis for a root beer float. I was excited to see on their sign that it was "happy hour" when we arrived.

We stayed the night in Santa Rosa where we met up with our church group. Caleb enjoyed swimming in the pool. Sunday morning we left out with the group. We stopped at a pretty little park in Albuquerque for a time of worship together and then lunch.

We arrived in Gallup Sunday afternoon. Caleb helped unload and we all got settled in our rooms. Sunday evening we went over to the church building for their worship service and also a meal they had prepared for us, which was delicious.

Monday we worked on preparing our individual rooms for VBS. Our theme was Treasure Hunt Bible Adventure. This is a bulletin board in our room (my husband and I were co-teachers for K/1st grade this year). Thank you to my Mom for the words. It says, "The Bible is our map to lead us to our treasure...Jesus!" My husband made the little islands. We had a ship that sailed from island to island for each day to find a different treasure from the Bible....trust, love, pray, live, and Jesus. I used little paper Bibles for attendance each day that we also moved around the islands.

We were all pleased with the VBS turnout. The church there worked really hard advertising and promoting the VBS and we had more this year compared to last year. I think we had 39 children in attendance plus probably 15-20 adults in the adult class which was great.

Tuesday we went on a trip to El Morro National Monument. We went last year also as a group. Caleb kept telling us he was going to the top this year. We did all three go to the top

We did all three go to the top this year and this is one view from there. I wasn't sure I was going to make it! I didn't like how I felt climbing across the path. I did better when my boys were in front of me, I didn't feel so much like I was going to stumble. Caleb kept saying, "This hiking is hard work." It was cute how much he loved it. He walked the whole way. I figured part way up he'd want to be carried but he didn't!

On Wednesday we worked at the home. It rained in the morning (and was rather chilly) so we went to some shops downtown and came back to work in the afternoon. Caleb scraped paint and then repainted a curb with Daddy.

Thursday some of the group went to Red Rock but we decided to go to Petrified Forest in Arizona with another family since we'd been to Red Rock already last year. Caleb was so excited to hear he was going to Arizona since Daddy had just been there a few weeks ago on a trip. We enjoyed the ride over and seeing another piece of God's creation. This is a picture of a cactus I took on our drive into the park...something we don't see here in Texas, and Caleb told me to take a picture.

Here are a couple pictures of the Painted Desert. Pictures don't do it justice. It made me want to go to the Grand Canyon.

Friday we packed up to head back home. We stopped along the way. It was sure a LONG drive across New Mexico into Texas and this was such a welcome sight.

We are all thankful for the opportunity to go on this trip. We enjoyed being together. I was so proud of how well Caleb did while traveling again this year. He was the youngest one there and really the only kid in the group (besides the youth from the youth group who went). Everyone commented on what a good boy and hard worker he was during the trip. That made me smile. :)

Thank you again for your prayers for us while we were away. I am still catching up on things at home and look forward to visiting your blogs again soon! I've read a few here and there in my Google Reader. I had other things that needed to be taken care of first. (I put more pictures on Facebook too if you want to see some of us. I have my reasons for not putting pictures of us here!)
~~~~~~~~~
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27