September 2nd, 2008 - The Eastern Leg of our Summer Trip

We began our trip eastward with a service in Arizona. Leaving the high heat of L.A. was wonderful, except for the fact it only got hotter. L.A. was around 105 degrees, Phoenix was over 115 degrees! It was here at Scottsdale First Assembly that our kids enjoyed the largest Buddy Barrel they had ever seen.


Leaving Phoenix, we headed north for a few days in Northern Arizona. Seeing Heather's family was great. Not to mention they live in the mountains of Arizona. It was much cooler! Shown are Heather's Aunt Ruth, Uncle Ernie, and cousin Dan, along with the kids.


On the way to the interstate, we were able to drive through the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. It is awesome to see God's handwork! It was exciting for the entire family to see petroglyphs left by Native Americans years ago. Well, maybe Joe was not as interested as the rest of the family.


Heading to Oklahoma where Matt's family lives and our next service was, we traveled for two days. While the temperature continued to drop, the humidity began to rise. I'm sure if you live in Oklahoma, you wouldn't be as affected by the heat and humidity. We were completely sapped of all energy, and fluid, by lunchtime. From lunch until dinner, we tried to stay in air conditioning as much as possible. After dinner it cools off enough to be outside, but you only stay outside until the bugs come out for the evening. Stay out too long and you are likely to be drug into the woods by the swarms of mosquitoes! Aaw, it is really not that bad.

Here is a photo of Matt's Dad, his sisters, Sue and Sarah, along with our kids and nieces, Katie and Kassie.


From Oklahoma to Springfield, Missouri. We had a two week period in Missions classes. It was good to see friends and coworkers again, as well as get a chance to be refreshed a bit. We also learned more about the life of a missionary. Truth is, our life is in constant transition. It brings a completely new set of situations and circumstances to our life we have never experienced. After learning about the transitions of our life and what is a normal and natural reaction to it we better understand ourselves and our children. We used to think we were going crazy, now we realize we are normal! It was the first time that has ever been confirmed!

After more farewells, we headed to our next service in Florida. It was here we were able to see our first real 'gator! We also had a chance to relax a little in between meetings with pastors. The heat and humidity was much worse in Florida, but it was much prettier than Oklahoma. Sorry, Dad, it's true.

We visited a large lake with a good population of Gators. We were able to see this one close up and personal! Dad thinks the kids enjoyed George the Gator much more than Mom did!

— Posted in Family, Friends, Ministry