Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig

Hey, we're back and I am so far behind in blogland that I give up!  We had nine days with virtually no computer (I did check the email once early in the trip), and what peace it gave to my soul.  No pressure. The minute we walked back into our house, or rather, the next morning, five people spent most of the day looking into this screen for one reason or another, being basically useless in this household.  If this old dinosaur (for which we are very thankful, and it isn't THAT old) crashes, I may not be in a hurry to fix it!

Speaking of dinosaurs, we saw some on our trip.  Now, I know, I told you there is nothing to look at between here and the middle of nowhere, but I must have been exaggerating again, because really there is some pretty nice scenery around Flagstaff, and in parts of New Mexico.  But most of what we saw looked like this:

And this (notice the dust devil):

The pretty stuff looks like this:

On the first day of our journey we were shocked to see these scary-looking creatures on both sides of the highway:

 

 

The girls hollered out to our resident Dragon-Slayer, Dad, to stop the car and catch one for them, so he did.  He made chase, drew his sword, and captured one of the beasts!  Here the girls are, subduing the creature:

Another interesting sight along the way were these windmills.  These things are HUGE.  For perspective's sake, see the little teeny thing right in the center of the photo?  That is an ordinary-sized windmill, and although it appears to be on the horizon, it is about in line with the second large windmill from the foreground. We have seen these before; their size always amazes me!

 

While at our destination we enjoyed four nights of music and preaching by my daughters (the music portion) and my husband (the preacher), plus the company of dear friends, one of whom has been inspired to start his own blog, A Guy's View.  We were blessed to be in our old church, to have fellowship with our beloved pastor and his wife, and to fill our bellies with lots of good food. We were also blessed with a trip to the zoo, the first time ever for my three-year-old.  We saw the usual zoo beasts, hippos, elephants, gorillas, and giraffes:

 

 

Oh yes, and BATS!  Ugh.

 

Well, we had a wonderful time, but we are also glad to be home. Tomorrow (Sunday) is the Dragon Slayer's birthday, so we are going to celebrate with a big taco salad (it would be roast beef and mashed potatoes, but it is going to be 112 tomorrow -- not roast weather!), plus a big chocolate cake and French vanilla ice cream, AFTER a joyful reunion with our own church family in the morning.  Wish me lots of free time this week so I can keep up with the ever-important, but low-priority, blogosphere!