It's Friday

And my house is still clean.  I love it!

On Wednesday Daniel thought his stomach hurt.  So I sent him back to bed.  When he got up a little later he felt better.  By that time I had started some spring cleaning.  It worked out well.  Since it was such a sunny day for a change the children were able to be outside in it all day.  And I got so much cleaning done.

That day I decided that Elly, the dog, would be staying outside.  She was out most of the day anyway.  After getting rid of my carpets I had in the living and dining rooms I liked the dog hairless house.  So I made a nice bed for her in the old goat barn where I put her at night. 

It was hard for me to do this as I like having a dog inside.  But the dog hair was really getting to me.  When I first got Elly it was what I intended to do.  She seems to be adjusting and isn't lacking in attention as Leah plays with her most of the day.

After all the cleaning I did on Wednesday I am happy to see that it is still clean.

Whitney came over yesterday and cleaned my china huts and the windows in my living and dining rooms.  Her car is still insured on our policy.  Once a month she comes over and works off the premium.  I am always grateful for her help.

We did get three days of school accomplished this week and plan to do one today as well. 

I had taken some of the school books along on vacation with intentions of doing some things while driving.  We did that one day.  But we don't have much left and most of that will just be "fun" stuff the next few weeks.

In Creation to the Greeks we are on week 32.  So we are almost finished. 

In Daniel's other subjects this is what he has left:

English From the Roots Up - 5 more words

All About Spelling  - last step

Singapore Math 4B - last review

Intermediate Language Lessons - 5 more lessons

Art & Music - just a few more fun lessons

Science - finish the Archimedes book

History - finish Esther, read from Ezra and Nehemiah and Ancient Worlds and Streams of Civilization

Have I mentioned that I love this curriculum?  The scope and sequence is so perfect.

This week we read in our Bible and history books about King Cyrus, King of Persia.  When we left off in Kings and Chronicles it was prophesied that King Cyrus would let the captives go back to Jerusalem after 70 years.  And that is just how it happened. 

We can count on God's Word being fulfilled to the very day and hour it was intended to be.

That is very encouraging to me.

Memorial Day

On Monday evening the children and I took a trip over to the cemetery to put flowers on my parent's graves.  Since there had been a break in the rain and the roads were pretty good around here I figured it would be a good time to try to get there. 

Our cemetery is out in the country.  The only road in isn't too great as there is a slough on both sides.  I found it muddy but we made it through okay.

Even as a child I have always found the cemetery a place of great peace.  Our visit prompted a good discussion with Daniel about death and the resurrection.

I am thankful for the parents I had.  Both were not perfect.  But they were the best parents for me.  I still miss them.  Dad has been gone 19 years and Mom 9.  There are so many things I would like to tell and show them.  Since they both died knowing and serving the LORD I know they are resting in peace.  How grand that day will be when He returns! 

Better Now

I am happy to report that we are doing better.  Tim and Leah both came down with the flu, Leah on Friday and Tim on Sabbath.  Daniel thought he had a stomach ache yesterday but seemed fine as the day went on.  Leah is still a little weak and has not eaten much for a few days.  The rest of us are keeping a light diet as well.

I was able to get everything except my maps put away from the trip.  The laundry is washed, dried, and put away as well.  Yesterday I did some spring cleaning.

My goal was to get the bedrooms cleaned and if I had time, the inside of the van but I didn't get to the van.  I cleaned my room first, it wasn't messy just needed walls, furniture, and floors washed.  That was easy. 

I didn't want to do school in a messy school room so I tackled Leah's room next.  That took a little longer as it was messy.  Since she was too weak to help I was able to throw more things away that they will not miss.

After a light lunch I figured I may as well get to Daniel's room as well.  His was more messy that dirty.  Once I got things put away it didn't take me long to wash down walls, floors, and furniture. 

It is nice to have those rooms cleaned.  All I have to do now is to clean the windows and wash the curtains. 

I am hoping Daniel will still be feeling well today so we can get back to school. 

I was watching video of the Today Show's coverage of the tornado devastation in Joplin, Missouri.  It looks terrible.  My heart and prayers go out to those people. 

We're Home

We got home last night.  I'm not sure exactly what time it was as I was ill.  We stopped at Pierre, SD for lunch.  I decided I didn't feel too well and just lay on the van's back seat while the family went inside.  After that things didn't go too well.  I'm feeling better now, just a little achey.  I don't think I will eat anything too soon. 

Here I sit with a big mess of suitcases and things that need to be put away and bags of laundry that need attending.  It will just have to wait, I guess, as I am too weak to do much but sit.

The Grand Canyon

This is our first look at the canyon.

It was so amazing.

My pictures don't do it justice.

But we tried anyway.

We just had to keep taking them.

Then I noticed the moon.

The sunset on one side

It was a day filled with magnificence.

Day 12

It seems we did a lot this day.  We had been staying in Cottonwood.  First we drove up to the old ruins right north of the town.  They call them Tuzigoot.  I had loaded pictures on here this morning but didn't have time to post them.  Now some of them are gone.  At this sight we could walk around the apartments.

"Approximately 800 years ago, this Sinagua pueblo was home to the Native American population once inhabiting this area."

For some reason the people disappeared and no one knows why.

Then we went to see Montezuma Castle.  This ancient cliff dwelling dates back to 1150.  The Castle stands in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley.  They called it Montezuma Castle when the first discovered it because they mistakenly thought they were Aztec ruins.

After that we went to Montezuma Well which is a natural limestone sinkhole, and was an important source of water for the Sinagua Indians.

We hiked down the trail to the bottom of this.  And we saw the outlet.

I didn't get any pictures loaded of Sedona other than this one.  We found the area absolutely beautiful.  The red rocks were awesome. 

Leah wanted a ride on this.  We all enjoyed the 20 minute ride.  The lady told us they pay $14 a bale for a small 100 pound square bale which they have to feed their horses year round.  They have to truck them in from somewhere else. 

It was a good day.

Day 11

It is so nice to have sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70's or lower 80's, just perfect for me.

We had a nice restful day.  Most slept in.  The children wanted to swim.  So I took them down to the pool for about an hour. 

After they showered we left for my cousin's house in Prescott.  With her directions we easily found her place.

Dustin is relaxing. 

Cindy made us so much good food!!  I wish I would have taken a picture of the table before we ate. 

  Cindy has always been the photographer of the family.  She takes great shots and shares them with others.  Some of my favorite photos I have in my albums are from her.  I loved the way she has documented her and Casey's lives throughout the years and displayed the pictures in her home.   

The time went past too quickly. 

Soon it was time to leave.

By the time we got "home" it was dark.

We are planning to stay another night here in Cottonwood as there are several places close by that we want to see.  Tomorrow we will head north to the Grand Canyon.

Days 8, 9, and 10

We are in Arizona now.  Day 8 was spent driving through California from Fort Bragg to Hesperia which is just north of San Bernadino.  Day 9 we had few miles left from Hesperia to Scottsdale and made it there by 1:30 to Dustin's.  It was good to finally see him.  There was a nice Hampton Inn right across the street from his apartment complex where we got a room.  Since it was almost 100 degrees there was no problem swimming in the outdoor pool.  We drove down to Old Scottsdale and had a great dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  As much as I would have liked to have done other things in the area, it was too hot for me to handle.

Tim and Dustin got up early on day 9, picked up the U-Haul trailer, and loaded Dustin's things.  The children and I stayed at the motel, slept in, had a wonderful breakfast, and relaxed by and in the pool.  The men were finished before checkout time.  Then we headed north.

Since the motels were full in Prescott we are staying at Cottonwood.  I find the temperature more to my liking here.  It is in the 80's.  We found a nice motel here and plan to stay for one more night.

Last night we ate at the Blazing M Ranch and took in a cowboy show.  The food was good and so was the show. 

Tim especially enjoyed the show.

Leah had to try all of these cut out face pictures.

I am really looking forward to today.  I've never been to my cousin's place and she is making us dinner.

Day 7

At our ocean side motel

This morning Tim decided we should see the ocean one more time.  So we went down HWY 1 to Fort Bragg.  It was a beautiful but twisty drive.  It was great to find a nice motel right beside the ocean, eat our lunch, and do some sight seeing.

We spent most of the day at different beaches.  One was glass beach.  Years ago when people still did things like this it was used as a dump.  People would dump their garbage and even old cars right on the beach.  After it was all cleaned up they found that old pieces of glass still washed up on the beach.  It is not sharp anymore but looks like pretty little rocks.  We found hundreds of old spark plugs embedded into the rocks.  Daniel even found a metal rim embedded into the rock.  The cool thing about it is that it looks like it belongs, like God's creation has absorbed man's mess and made it into something beautiful.

  I had more pictures I was going to put on here but they took too long to load onto blogger.

While on one beach we saw sea lions very close on some rocks and swimming in the ocean with their pups.  We enjoyed watching the mothers and babies interacting.  I'm so glad to have had this last day. 

I love this picture of Daniel.

I don't want to leave California.  But I am looking forward to seeing Dustin.  I love Arizona, too, and probably won't want to leave it either.

We hope to get an early start tomorrow as we took extra time off from driving today.  So I had best get to my bed.

Day 6

Each morning we have such a nice free breakfast.  Motels really put out a lot of food.  It is nice to get that start to the day.

We headed south along 101 and saw some beautiful coastline.  I could look at the ocean each day and not get tired of it. 

We stopped in Crescent City and found this lighthouse which is only accessible during low tide which just happened to be when we were there.  There is lighthouse keeper in residence.

While at the visitor center in Crescent City the kind lady gave us lots of good information about the Redwoods.  We sure were amazed at these giants.

Tim couldn't make it through with the van.

These trees are so old.

This is little Leah and me.

Daniel and Leah are by "The Big Tree."

Tonight we are staying in Eureka.  No, that's not South Dakota.  We are still in California.  We will be heading inland tomorrow so we can make it to Phoenix by Thursday.

I am thankful for the travel protection and give glory to God.  Today while I was driving through one of the towns I almost had an accident.  A lady pulled right into my lane and then proceeded to stop as she was going to turn left.  I'm sure she never even saw us.  I was positive I would hit her as our bumpers could only have been a couple inches apart. 

I would appreciate any prayer you might say for us as we still have a lot of driving to do.

Day 5

Well...we didn't make it to the Redwoods today.  But we had a good full day.  We saw this lighthouse and climbed to the top.

We got to explore tide pools during low tide and found all kinds of creatures.  We were allowed to view and gently touch them.  They were so amazing.

These were spiny but would give your finger a gentle hug.

Seeing the tide pools was my favorite part of the day.

We visited the sea lion cave.

The children loved the sand dunes the best.  We had hoped to get a ride on a big dune buggy but they were closed when we got there.  We did find some dunes we could climb.  Daniel and Leah would run down them, fall and tumble, then climb back up again.

Very beautiful place Oregon is! 

Tomorrow we are off to the Redwoods.  We didn't quite make it before we got too tired.  It is only about 150 miles from where we are stopped for the night.

Here is a short video of the sea lion caves.

Day 4 (already?)

There!  Now I've caught up on posts.  I might not have a chance to post every day after today.  We enjoyed a nice lazy day around the motel with frequent walks on the beach.

Tim was getting hungry!

But he took the children swimming.

The seagulls were hungry, too, and caught many clams while I was watching.

Finally, we could eat, too.  There's nothing like a good home cooked meal after eating out for several days.

We drove down the road a couple miles and found a beach where it was more protected.  The water was cold.

Leah dug in the sand almost the whole time.

Once it got cloudy I got cold.

Tim walked down a ways to see what the fishermen were fishing for.  He found they were clam fishing and was given an in depth lesson on it.  While he was there he saw these sea lions.  We enjoyed watching them through the binoculars.  We also saw some seals.

It was a great day and we will be sorry to leave tomorrow.  But we have things to look forward to seeing then.  We want to stop at the whale watching point, a lighthouse, the sea lion caves, and other things before we get to our next stopping point.

Day 3

After eating our free breakfast we got a fairly early start.  I felt pretty rested and drove to this spot in the Columbia River Gorge.  We got off the interstate onto old HWY 80 to view these amazing waterfalls.

These are Multnomah Falls, one of the places listed in my 1000 Places To SEE in the USA and Canada Before You Die book.

Leah is a little afraid of heights and said that she didn't want to go on that bridge.  But she did and remarked that it wasn't bad.

It took us awhile to get through Portland as traffic was almost bumper to bumper and slow for a long way.  Then we had to get through Salem which wasn't as bad but still slow.  Finally we arrived at Lincoln city.  We weren't sure if we would stay here or go on to Newport.  When we stopped at this motel and got such a good rate we decided to stay in Lincoln City.  We are right on the beach!  We've got a suite with a living room, bedroom, two baths, and a full kitchen.  It's gorgeous here. 

This is the view from our balcony.

Daniel is running from a wave.

Such amazing things our children are getting to experience!

I found a star fish upside down on the beach.

I wasn't sure if it was alive or dead.

When we realized it was still alive Tim offered to return it to its home.  He said it started moving as he got close to the water.

We are enjoying a Sabbath's rest today.  We had planned to drive over to the Harrisburg church for service this morning as we know the pastor and some of the people there.  But none of us were up for another drive and decided to just rest and enjoy the day here. 

Last night while Tim and the children were swimming I found a little grocery store and purchased some fixings for our Sabbath meal.  We will have our most usual one, spaghetti.  The meat and sauce is cooking now in the oven and smelling up the place good.

Tim was going to take the children swimming this morning.  First they went down and found it closed until 10:30.  When they went down at 10:30 and found they would be cleaning it until 11:30 they were a little upset.

It looks like the clouds are breaking up.  We will have to get out and take another walk on the beach.