Hoover Dam

 The closer we got to Hoover Dam, the more beautiful the drive.  Honestly I had thought before we got there that this stop would be more for Todd.  He was really looking forward to it so I really wanted him to get to see it.  But that was about the extent of my interest.

As we drove over that bridge he was getting more excited.  The curvy road right after that- up and up and up was interesting and enjoyable.  Then when we got where we could see a bit from the car, I thought I would have to make him stop and let me drive.  :)

Once we got inside it was far more interesting than I thought it would be.

Todays fun fact:  This floor.  As a matter of fact, the entire floor inside is made of Granite mixed with concrete.  It is the original floor and has been there since the beginning in 1931.  Someone donated it at the time and now would be worth millions.

Once we got outside it was far more beautiful than I knew it would be.

We enjoyed it so much, once again-  we stayed there longer than we thought we would.

We finally did get on our way, leaving very thankful that we got to experience it.

Sights Unseen

 As we left the gorgeous Grand Canyon we saw sights like this.  It was so cool.  Certainly not sights I've seen before.

Just on the side of the road!

Another interesting fact... As we drove (and drove) we moved from one land formation to another.  The mountains were so pretty everywhere I looked.  And I could not stop looking.  And telling Todd to look.  Then, remembering that he WAS driving and he should not look at every single thing I thought was beautiful or interesting...  Anyway the most interesting thing was that there would be mountains like these, all rocky.

Then you drive a while and you would start to see trees mixed in.

 Then drive a while and maybe just more dirt and no green.

 Then drive a while.  Did I mention we did a lot of DRIVING? and you would see rock with trees sticking out of the rock.

As you notice, I did lots of picture taking straight from the window of the vehicle.  I finally had to tell myself to stop taking pictures from the moving car.  = blurry pictures!  But I just couldnt help myself.  If we would have had time I would have stopped every 15 minutes for a photo shoot!  #ilovepictures

 The drive from the Grand Canyon to Nevada was the most beautiful ever.  I am so glad we got to do this and I will never forget Gods beauty we saw.

We went in to Las Vegas and got to see Blue Man Group.  We couldnt take any pictures there but really enjoyed the show.  It is so crazy how they can do an entire show and never once speak a word. It was fun and enjoyable.  So glad we did that.  As a matter of fact if not for that show I dont think we would say we really enjoyed Las Vegas at all.  The driving was crazy!  There were sooooo many people.  I wondered if that was what New York was like.  We didnt stay in a place where we were in walking distance of things.  (Mistake)  Parking=Impossible  So all of that sorta dampered the rest, but Blue Man Group was great.

IT WAS GRAND!

It's ME!  I'M BACK!!
Yea, it's been a while.
But HEY, now I have something to blog about so here I go.

A few weeks ago this guy came home from work one day and brought the mail in.  We received an invitation that day to our nieces wedding shower out of town.  When I read the date of it, I mentioned that it was on our anniversary.  June 4th.  He said, "Then we cant go."  I looked at him like he was nuts and said "We can't go because its our anniversary?!  He just had this weird look and silence... So I said "Are we going somewhere?!"  He was tight lipped for a bit but a few days later he decided to let me play 20 questions and tell me the surprise he had planned for me for our anniversary.  And what a huge surprise it was!  So we recently flew out to Phoenix, Arizona.  And let me first say Arizona has GOT to be the MOST beautiful place in the United States!  From there we rented a car and started our drive.  And I do mean DRIVE!  I absolutely LOVED the drive from Phoenix to the GRAND CANYON!  I am always telling Todd how I've almost never been anywhere but Florida.  Well, he fixed that!
Fact of the day:  I know that I have NEVER used the word WOW so much in all my life.
This is why...

 Do you see the tiny tiny people of the top of that????

I think (I think) this is my favorite picture.

When we first walked up to see our first view of the canyon, it was basically breathtaking.  Todd was telling me how when he was a kid and was there that he didn't remember all the railings we saw and explained that it was just drop offs right down into the canyon.

I said "No way.  Are you sure?"  He assured me of that.  As we hiked around and saw much more of the canyon we pretty quickly saw many many places where it just dropped off.  You could just continue walking and fall down down down.  That was crazy to me.  Of course it also makes complete sense.  I mean no fence will go all the way around the entire canyon!  hehehe  But having never seen it I just didn't realize.  Its nothing you can really imagine without seeing it.

It was so beautiful to look at.  We really hadn't planned on spending quite so much time there.  But I just couldn't quit looking and looking.  We ended up taking a bus tour that took us to different spots where we would get off and hike around.  Then get back on and go around a little further and get off again to do a little more exploring.  There was this crazy heat wave while we were there.  It was 108 degrees!  Yea it was hot.  And true it was without our humidity but 108 is still HOT ya'll!  HOT  As a matter of fact we about dehydrated doing all our exploring.   When we got back to the Visitor Center we asked to purchase bottled water.  To which they replied.  "Oh we do not sell bottled water anywhere here."  I gave the guy a crazed look and said "WHY?" Crazy people will throw the empty bottles all over, even down the canyon.  BUT  they did sell plastic containers that you can get fresh spring water straight out of the canyon and fill them with it.  Thats what we did and it was great.

Ok just a few more for good measure!
And one piece of advice.  If you've never been, GO.

More vacation blogs to come.

Thank you Lord and Todd for this experience!  I am blessed.

Meaningless Dreams

Do you ever have meaningless dreams.  Boy, I do.  Some crazy nonsensical mumbo jumbo.  Yea every now and again.

Sunday morning I woke up thinking about the dream I had just had.


Picture this.

A ballpark

Full of people and noise and hot dogs and nachos and bats and balls and bases.
"Batter up!!"
It was me.
I was the batter at the plate.
The bat in my hands held high above my shoulders.

The ball coming at me.

FAST

I wasnt ready.

What if I missed it?

What if I hit it, but it just hops right out there only to be snagged up, and Im thrown out.

"HOLD ON, WAIT"

No waiting.

The ball is screaming towards me.

I wasnt ready.

So I let the ball go by me.

There was only one problem.

Behind me ---

there were people.  Lots of people.  If I didnt hit the ball, then someone was going to be harmed by that ball that was speeding towards them.

I needed to hit it.

But I wasnt ready.

So I just tensed every ounce of me up.  I squeezed my eyes shut.  I tightened my grip on the bat.  I knew someone behind me was about to get hurt because I let the ball get by me.

I woke up then.

Thinking I hated dumb meaningless dreams.  About sports no less...

I got up, got ready for church, and went on with my morning.

Then right there in the middle of Praise Band practice, while I was stepping back for Calley to practice a song she was going to lead, God seemed to say,

"What about that dream?"
-Yea, I hate meaningless silly dreams-

"Meaningless?  Or No?"
-Well what then Lord?  What in the world would this mean?-

And He laid it all out, right there.

"Youre up to the plate. You are prepared.  Go on hit the ball.  Dont worry about where it will land.  I'll take care of that.  If you let the pitch go by---
Someone will be HURT.
Youre at bat.
Youre prepared.
Theres a crowd.
Youre in the game.
The pitch is coming.

Dont let it get by you.
Swing the bat."

Theres this thing God has for us to do.  He has prepared us for it.  He has placed us where we need to be.  Whatever it is, is right there coming toward us.
What are we going to do.
Just stand there?
Think of all the ways it could go wrong?

No, give it your best shot.

Let God take care of the results.

I love when dreams have meaning.

The Wedding

May 16, 2015

That was the day that my first born son was married to sweet Paige.

We are so happy that they are finally married.

It was a large wedding party.  They all looked so nice.

Avery was part of the wedding party.  

 Casey was a bridesmaid.

My own sweetheart performed the ceremony.

Here is a candid shot of me and my sweet three.  I was pinning boutonnieres. 

 It was a very nice ceremony.  Even though the dark clouds threatened us throughout the day, when it came time for the ceremony it was nice and clear.  We were all very thankful for that.

Mark and Paige had several things they added to their day that I thought were very sweet.

Like---

Sending each other gifts before the ceremony.  This is Paige reading a letter he wrote to her to go along with her gift.  It was so sweet to watch her read the letter.  (A little makeup touch up was required.)

This is her reaction to her Tiffany blue gift!

This is Mark reading the letter Paige wrote him to go along with the gift that was delivered to him.

At the reception they toasted each other with Sprite - Paiges favorite!

This is our nephew Grayson who has made a very good buddy in Josh.  (I have no idea how he got dirty, but it had rained a lot earlier in the day, so there you go.)

Another thing about Grayson--- He is a dancing machine!  Seriously!

Avery was giving him a good run for his money however.  There was lots of dancing going on.

And - yea, I have no idea!  But I think its pretty funny.