Days 5 & 6
Tonight finds us in a hotel in New Mexico with lots of space!! Yeah! The last two nights have been a little tight and we have had to pull out the air mattresses. Luckily, we have been so tired that the kids have gone right to sleep :).
Yesterday our day was spent in the Carlsbad exploring the caverns there. God's workmanship was spectacular! One room was actually called "The Cross" and later, as we were walking outdoors, I spotted Harvey taking a pictures of a small cactus in the shape of a cross. They were great reminders of His grace and love, even in the midst of all of the "millions and billions"of years talk going on all around us! Speaking of that topic, we all agreed that it would have been really neat to have a young earth creationist with us giving us the true scientific facts about what we were seeing. I am so thankful to have a husband and teenage son who wanted to know the truth!
Now, from a practical mom's point of view, which I know many of you want to hear :), here is what worked and what did not!
What worked...
Picnic lunch before we went in with food and water from our trailer and coolers. Even though it was soooo hot, the fold up picnic table (thanks to my father in law) worked great for our little ones. God has been so good to give us strong breezes in TX and NM to keep us from being scorching hot.
Flashlights for our younger boys and cameras for the rest of us while in the caverns. I really thought the younger kids would tire as it was a lot of walking (and we even took the elevator down :). But, with the flashlights, Jonathan and Benjamin totally thought they were scientists, explorers, or something!
Paper and colored pencils to draw nature around us for the younger kids when we had time to kill before watching the bats fly out of their cave at dusk.
Wearing tennis shoes for all of the said walking :).
What did not work...
A stroller, as apparently they are not allowed in the caverns. So, the baby walked and walked. Overall she did well. What worked against her was her independent streak, so she never wanted to be carried (but all that walking made for a good night's sleep for her :).
Keeping a two year old quiet in the caverns. Apparently no talking above a whisper is allowed as the sound travels like crazy. Try explaining that one to a toddler :). For the most part, she was fine...only a few times did she let her voice be heard.
Trying to keep a certain child from "shhshhing" everyone because of above noise rule. What he did not understand was how LOUD his shhshhing was. Oh well. He was really trying to obey the rules!
Overall, it was a great day. Although I would not want to live here, God's creation is so beautiful even in the midst of a desert. We are trying hard to take it all in and appreciate it, even though we are so partial to our state of NC. But, it is making us more and more aware of how blessed our life is in NC. We have seen so much poverty here. Small towns in the middle of nowhere without even as much a gas station and nothing in sight for miles dot the interstate we traveled on today. One town we drove through today had a partially rusty playground and two outhouses. That was it. And I complain if one of our parks has a bathroom that I do not think is clean enough!
This afternoon, we made a brief stop at a Native American cultural center museum. It was interesting, but unfortunately not very kid-friendly. I did get an opportunity to talk to two teenage girls while our kids played with some clay. They were from one of the Native American tribes close by. They were there to look at a photograph in an exhibit of the girl's grandfather who was deceased. The girl was telling me some about their tribe and how nice and friendly it was. She told us about a place called Hopi Springs that was beautiful. She said, "It used to belong to our people a long time ago until a man in our tribe got drunk and was tricked into giving it away." It was sad to hear her, just a teenager, talk about something that happened so long ago, and yet was still felt deeply by her people.
Well, I have rambled on long enough. So sorry no pictures are posting yet.
Carried by God's Grace,
Yesterday our day was spent in the Carlsbad exploring the caverns there. God's workmanship was spectacular! One room was actually called "The Cross" and later, as we were walking outdoors, I spotted Harvey taking a pictures of a small cactus in the shape of a cross. They were great reminders of His grace and love, even in the midst of all of the "millions and billions"of years talk going on all around us! Speaking of that topic, we all agreed that it would have been really neat to have a young earth creationist with us giving us the true scientific facts about what we were seeing. I am so thankful to have a husband and teenage son who wanted to know the truth!
Now, from a practical mom's point of view, which I know many of you want to hear :), here is what worked and what did not!
What worked...
Picnic lunch before we went in with food and water from our trailer and coolers. Even though it was soooo hot, the fold up picnic table (thanks to my father in law) worked great for our little ones. God has been so good to give us strong breezes in TX and NM to keep us from being scorching hot.
Flashlights for our younger boys and cameras for the rest of us while in the caverns. I really thought the younger kids would tire as it was a lot of walking (and we even took the elevator down :). But, with the flashlights, Jonathan and Benjamin totally thought they were scientists, explorers, or something!
Paper and colored pencils to draw nature around us for the younger kids when we had time to kill before watching the bats fly out of their cave at dusk.
Wearing tennis shoes for all of the said walking :).
What did not work...
A stroller, as apparently they are not allowed in the caverns. So, the baby walked and walked. Overall she did well. What worked against her was her independent streak, so she never wanted to be carried (but all that walking made for a good night's sleep for her :).
Keeping a two year old quiet in the caverns. Apparently no talking above a whisper is allowed as the sound travels like crazy. Try explaining that one to a toddler :). For the most part, she was fine...only a few times did she let her voice be heard.
Trying to keep a certain child from "shhshhing" everyone because of above noise rule. What he did not understand was how LOUD his shhshhing was. Oh well. He was really trying to obey the rules!
Overall, it was a great day. Although I would not want to live here, God's creation is so beautiful even in the midst of a desert. We are trying hard to take it all in and appreciate it, even though we are so partial to our state of NC. But, it is making us more and more aware of how blessed our life is in NC. We have seen so much poverty here. Small towns in the middle of nowhere without even as much a gas station and nothing in sight for miles dot the interstate we traveled on today. One town we drove through today had a partially rusty playground and two outhouses. That was it. And I complain if one of our parks has a bathroom that I do not think is clean enough!
This afternoon, we made a brief stop at a Native American cultural center museum. It was interesting, but unfortunately not very kid-friendly. I did get an opportunity to talk to two teenage girls while our kids played with some clay. They were from one of the Native American tribes close by. They were there to look at a photograph in an exhibit of the girl's grandfather who was deceased. The girl was telling me some about their tribe and how nice and friendly it was. She told us about a place called Hopi Springs that was beautiful. She said, "It used to belong to our people a long time ago until a man in our tribe got drunk and was tricked into giving it away." It was sad to hear her, just a teenager, talk about something that happened so long ago, and yet was still felt deeply by her people.
Well, I have rambled on long enough. So sorry no pictures are posting yet.
Carried by God's Grace,
Comments
I hope the rest of your trip is a lot of fun!