During our recent visit to El Paso, we survived the desert trek to reach Carlsbad Caverns ( number 23 of the 47 U.S. National Parks we plan to visit in our life together).
It was a perfect day alone with the man of my dreams exploring and enjoying God’s creation.
We spent 5 hours exploring the caves 800 feet below the earth’s surface.
Pictures truly can’t do it justice, but I’ll try.
Can you guess what this rock formation was called? Look closely.
After spending the afternoon in the caverns below, we came up for dinner and then sunset with the bats.
Yes, you read that correctly. At dusk 400,000 (no that isn’t a typo, I meant to put all of those zeros there) bats fly out of the caves each night to feast on insects. It was amazing (and no I am not some crazy bat loving girl of the night). As we waited for the bats to fly out of the cave, I was totally grossed and freaked out, yet I knew it was something I didn’t want to miss. We sat and watched in hushed silence for over an hour as the bats continually flew out of the cave like a river flowing off into the desert.
Afterwards, we enjoyed a starry ride home in the barren desert.
It was one of the best days I’ve spent with my husband in a long, long time.
For more Wednesday pics, try here or here.
Last week we took the kids to the local zoo. We have tried to go once a year for the past several years. We go in part b/c we want to give the kids a chance to see the exotic animals up close. It’s so fun to watch their reactions. But, I’ll be honest, we also go b/c I love to see the animals up close! It is amazing and awe inspiring and I don’t think I could ever tire of it! (And I am not even an animal person).
Three preschool kids at the zoo in Maryland in the heat of summer. Why, you might ask? Well, that I’ve already answered that, it’s fun. How? We have a strategy that has worked really well for for us. We don’t attempt to see it all. We don’t make it a day long affair. We pick the few select animals we want to see, we take our time and enjoy them, and we leave happy. I don’t try to “get my money’s worth” and see every single animal in the zoo. I feel I get more than my money’s worth by enjoying the select ones we do see. One year I’d like to get a zoo membership and try to go back often and gradually see them all. The past two years we’ve been pretty fascinated by the same select few.
The polar bears.
The giraffe
The elephant
And the leopard.
This year, we had a few exciting moments as we got to feed the giraffe, watch the elephants drink water from their trunk, and watch and listen to the leopard pace and growl. Because we saw only a few we spent a good deal of time observing them. We saw more than just these 4 animals, but these were by far the highlight for the circus crew.
Follow the links for more fun with pictures (some more wordy and some less). And for more helpful tips, visit here.
Mudpies
Slugs
Puddle Jumping
We’ve had plenty of baths at the circus this weekend. But the extra laundry and baths are totally worth it to see my kids truly delighting in the simplest of pleasures and enjoying the world around them.
Mud, and slugs, and puddles…giggles, wonder, and smiles…
I’m trying my best to summarize our almost 2 week vacation, so as to keep you up to date with our circus adventures, without boring you with every.single.picture we took (if you knew how many pics we took, you would realize this is NO.SMALL.FEAT). I realized today though that I haven’t really posted any pictures of the actual parks yet. Hmmm…perhaps I should do something about that.
So, any guesses on which national park this is from?
Still no?
Now?
Here’s our itinerary, if ya wanted to narrow it down some.
Want a hint?
Ok, how about now?
Come back tomorrow for some more glimpses of God’s handiwork in Texas .
Sometimes little snippets of the extraordinary appear in the midst of everyday life. Right smack in the middle of a messy kitchen with trashcans overflowing, and kids walking around half naked, a conversation took place at our dining room table.
Scott was having eggnog with the two oldest children and I had gotten the video camera out to catch my littlest one playing with the tripod. She was walking around setting up the tripod and exclaiming, “Cheese.” I wasn’t able to catch her saying it when the camera was on her but during this time, a conversation began which I soon realized I just might want to record. Scott asked my son what the most important thing was…his answer touched our hearts.
You’ll have to excuse the fact that all of our kids are half naked (we’d had pasta for dinner that night so I had taken off their shirts). And I have no idea why my little girl is walking around with an empty milk carton in her stroller, we do have baby dolls, I promise. Of course this most precious father/son conversation couldn’t have taken place on a night when the kids were dressed nicely (or even fully dressed for that matter) but that’s the circus life for you! And that is most certainly not the most important thing.
Take a few minutes and listen to what my four year old son said is the most important thing…
This conversation is a gift that we will cherish forever. I am so thankful I was able to capture it and record it. He knows the most important thing and that is all a parent could ask for.
Last week as we were running errands the Christian radio station played one of those 60 sec minisermons. The person was speaking on 1 John 4 and read the passage which states, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Son: ” Mom, why did she say we don’t love God?”
Me: “They were saying that we didn’t love God first, but that God loved us and then we loved him.”
Son: “Well I have always loved God. Since I was a baby I knew that He was my Savior.”
Me: “How did you know? Who told you?”
Son: “I just knew”
Me: “What did He save you from?”
Son: “My sins”
Me: “What is sin?”
Son: “The bad stuff we do”
This conversation touched my heart on many levels. Since before my children were born, it has been my prayer that they would know Jesus as they Savior from a young age and that they wouldn’t ever know a day where they didn’t know him as their Lord and Savior. We’ve had several conversations over the past few months about death, Jesus, sin and my husband and I are both convinced that our son recognizes he is a sinner, knows that He needs a Savior and knows that Jesus is the one who took the consequences for his sins. My son’s statement have showed me that God has answered that prayer in His life. It was awesome to hear him say, “Mom, I’ve always known that Jesus is my Savior.” I thank God for that answered prayer. It is a thrill to watch the Lord working in his life.
Thoughtful Thursday:
Those of you familiar with my blog know that my posts typically relate funny anecdotes about the happenings of a stay at home wife and mom with three kids. While i suspect my days will seldom be “normal” enough to leave me without a “post worthy” moment, I intend to take some time on Thursdays to highlight something from my week that’s a little more “thoughtful” and significant. God is such an integral part of the way I see the world that my “Thoughtful Thursdays” will often reflect on the Lord’s work in my life and in the life of my family. If you had a post from this week, or choose to make a specific “Thoughtful Thursday” post, that relates any significant development/observation in your life (spiritual or not) please feel free to post a link to that blog entry in the comments section. I’d love to see how others are developing as well. (Oh, and please don’t feel like you have to have a blog or post a link to leave a comment 
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During our recent visit to El Paso, we survived the desert trek to reach Carlsbad Caverns ( number 23 of the 47 U.S. National Parks we plan to visit in our life together). 
