Home

My dear friends, after spending around 60 hours in a moving vehicle in the past 2 weeks, it is good to be home. 

The children are complaining about chores and errands, being hungry, and just about any other thing you could think of (and a few you probably couldn't think of), getting on each other's nerves, yelling, screaming, and hurting each other, throwing down-on-the-floor screaming-and-thrashing tantrums (and not just the little one) and yet, even in the midst of all that, it is so very good to be home.  Finally.

We began two weeks ago with a road trip to visit my brother and his family in Colorado.  We spent a few days in the Denver area, then headed south to Canon City and the Royal Gorge, stopping to summit Pike's Peak on the way.

There it is: Pike's Peak!

There we are!  On Pike's Peak.

Did you know that Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful on top of Pike's Peak?  So easy to see why she was inspired by this breathtakingly beautiful place.

 While all the others were in the gift shop, MC, Roger, and I were outside minding our own business when a fighter jet from the nearby US Air Force Academy did a fly-by, just about 30 feet above our heads. Awesome upon awesomeness. Hubby had the camera inside, of course.

The next day we headed over to the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park to walk over the highest suspension bridge in the world.

The bridge

The boys, not falling 1000+ feet off the bridge to the canyon floor
MC, Ty-Guy, Roger, AKD, Con-Man

The view from the sky tram of the Arkansas River on the canyon floor

 The following day, we headed back to the gorge, this time visiting the canyon floor by train.

Four of the boys (and some people we don't know) enjoying the open air car

See how narrow the gorge is at this point!  Only 30 feet across, and the walls are vertical, so this section of track is suspended over the river.

Here's a view of the bridge from below

 It was a wonderful time visiting family and seeing some beautiful sights.

On Friday morning Hubby's grandma passed away, so we headed home early to have a day at home to unload and repack for a trip east to her funeral in Michigan.  Diagnosed with Alzheimer's and plagued by dementia, we had said goodbye to Grandma, at least the Grandma we knew and loved, and who knew and loved us, years ago, but that didn't make it any easier to lose her physical presence here on earth.

All in all, we logged about 60 hours on the road to and fro and fro and to again (more about how we survived all that time on the road with the kiddos in a future post).

The incredible beauty of the mountains followed so quickly by a sharp reminder of the fragility of this mortal life has made me thankful.  Thankful to have, for now, this little family I hold dear.  So thankful to be finally home, even knowing that this earthly place is not my home.  Grandma is the one who is home.  Finally.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.  

Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, 

for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:16