exciting news!

We have some exciting news! Our friend in Cambodia, Phally, led Srey Ya’s grandmother to the Lord!!!!! We are so excited and thank God for His faithfulness and for answering our prayers! Here are some pictures of her baptism:

Look at her smile! I have never seen her so happy!

Doesn’t Srey Ya look so pretty in her little dress?! Thank you so much to everyone who is praying for Srey Ya and her grandmother! We really hope that we can go back to Cambodia soon and visit them, but if not, then we are so happy that we’ll see her in Heaven someday!

yosemite: last time and this time

From the Death Valley, we made our way to the mountains of Yosemite. I LOVE Yosemite. Last time we were here, it was July and it was HOT! This time it was January and COLD!

We walked out on the frozen lake that had a ton of cracks it it. Everyone else was doing it...

The last time we were in Yosemite we hiked Half-Dome. See that dome like rock in the middle, way in the distance? That’s Half-Dome. Here are some pictures of that hike:

Don't let my smile fool you. I wanted to cry the whole way up... it was so scary

 

Last time we were tan. This time we were bundled up. And instead of Half-Dome, we hiked to Inspiration Point. We were kinda hoping that we’d get inspired up there.

Frozen waterfall... but is it still called a waterfall if it's not falling?

We love Yosemite so much we decided to stay overnight. Stay tuned for more on that in the next post…

alive and well in death valley

I have a confession to make. I didn’t want to go to the Death Valley. I pictured a desert with miles and miles of sand and that sounded really boring compared to all the mountains we had been climbing. But guess what? Death Valley surprised me and it turned out to be one of my favorite parks! I love how there was so much beauty and life even in a place called the DEATH Valley. We were lucky to visit in the winter because the temperature only reached about 70°. In the summer, on the other hand, it can get up to 130°! And in life, when the “temperature” rises and it seems like you’re going through the fire, it’s comforting to know that God walks with us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. What seems like a barren desert can, and will, produce life when God is at work.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Isaiah 43:1-3

I'm at the top, uh bottom, of the world!

Most of the time we were below sea level

They call this the "devil's golf course". Lots of references to the devil and hell, but God was pretty obvious in every part of this park

Ever see a random stack of rocks and wonder how it got there? Wonder no more.

Through painted deserts... These rocks were known as "the artist's canvas"

Largest sand dunes in North America

We decided to have a rock stacking contest...

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland!” Isaiah 43:19

the grand canyon

We didn’t plan to stop at the Grand Canyon. It was not part of our agenda and it was actually out of the way.

As we drove through the night, we came to the crossroads and we had to make a decision. So we stopped on the side of a road that had no streetlights and sat in the car in the pitch black and debated about what to do. The responsible choice would be to skip it and get to California as soon as possible… because, after all, a detour would mean we would have to put more miles on the car and more gas in the tank. The adventurous option would be to head for the Grand Canyon because the experience would be priceless.

Earlier that day, we had been reading this book out loud to each other:

Donald Miller is one of my favorite authors and this is one of my favorite books. Other than the fact that there are three chapters about Donald Miller’s trip to the Grand Canyon, this review by Publishers Weekly caught our attention: “Through Painted Deserts is a record of a classic road trip. Miller’s tale is full of serendipitous adventures and thoughtful Christian reflection… offering the sort of deep-thought wanderings into meaning and significance… a reminder that life was meant to be lived, not just gotten through.” 

And so after reading that, we decided to go to the Grand Canyon.

Oh, and of course we went on a hike.

And Davey chose another crazy one that had patches of ice along the path. The ranger recommended having special ice cleats on your sneakers so we wouldn’t slip off the cliff, but we Davey didn’t let that stop us. 

We didn’t have enough time to hike all the way to the bottom, so we decided to come back someday soon and hike to the bottom, camp down there and maybe raft through the canyon… anyone wanna come with us?!

the day we almost fell off a mountain in zion national park

Almost a month later and I’m stillllll talking about our road trip. Hope you don’t mind because I have a few more posts worth of pictures and stories to tell! Plus, our trip is much more exciting than our life right now. I would probably bore you by telling you that we sold our coffee tables and are trying to sell our couches and are using the neighbor’s empty garage to store our couches so that we don’t get any creepy people from Craigslist coming to see where we live and then returning at midnight to kill us in our sleep. We’re also remodeling the backyard in our spare time and right now it’s a muddy mess.  We spent 4 hours washing rocks the other day…. are you asleep yet? Wake up! I’m changing the subject because I think you’d rather hear about how we almost died in Zion NP.

We woke up really early so that we’d have lots of time to hike and explore Zion National Park. The directions weren’t very clear and we kept seeing signs for the park way before the GPS said we would. So we followed the signs and we are SO glad we did. The park has a northern part that we didn’t expect to see. We had no idea what was in store, but we drove the windy road up the mountain and as we rounded a corner, we saw this:

It seriously took my breath away. 

After we soaked it all in, we headed to the southern part of the park. Zion is pretty sweet because you have to drive through the desert to get to the southern entrance and then BOOM! The mountains appear.

It was a beautiful drive to the visitors center and once we got there, we asked the Ranger for some hike recommendations. And of course my adventurous, daredevil husband picked the hardest and craziest hike…

So up up up we hiked… till we came to this:

Whoever put these chains along this cliff is insane. And thanks to that person, I almost went insane because chains along a cliff are irresistible to a thrill seeker like Davey.

I tried to be a good sport and followed along, holding on for dear life. I’m normally not scared of heights, but at one point I could see down the cliffs on both sides. I froze in fear and sat down and watched Davey continue to the top. I probably didn’t pick the best place to stop because every time the wind blew, I felt like I was going to be blown off the mountain. I prayed and held on for dear life and kept my eyes on Davey…

I was so happy when he made it down that cliff alive!

Here’s a bird’s eye view of the hike:

Isn’t that nuts?! I’m glad I didn’t see that before we did the hike because I might not have done it. Ignorance is bliss.

It’s always a great feeling when you look up and see the mountain you just climbed. And isn’t that just like life? The trek up is exhausting and sometimes terrifying. You’re not sure what lies behind the next bend and you can’t really control where the path leads. But  after climbing those endless switchbacks, you get to the top and the view is amazing… you gain a whole new perspective up at the top! Then all too soon, you have to climb back down from your mountain top experience. And when you get to the bottom and look up and see what you just did… well, that’s a feeling like no other. I love how God is always with us in the valleys of life, during the hard “climbs” and when we feel like we’re on top of the world.

Today I’m thankful for mountains. And I’m thankful that we didn’t fall off the mountain in Zion National Park.

 

Colorful Colorado

Colorado is so beautiful that and I have no words to describe it. So, here are some pictures instead. We drove through Colorado Springs to Breckenridge, and then to a little town called Aspennnn and then to Utah. And since the whole country seems to be having a really mild winter, I was glad that I could count on Colorado to get my snow fix.

 

the day our blinker broke

A few weeks before we left on our trip, the Jeep started violently shaking when it got up to 50 mph. I guess after 3 cross country trips, it was time for some new tires. So we gave in, got some new wheels, an oil change and a few other tune ups and we were ready to hit the road again. I’m happy to report that the tires worked like a dream. The blinker on the other hand, conked out. It’s really hard to drive without a blinker and it seemed like we kept having to make left hand turns. We probably should have stuck our arm out of the window and done a proper left hand turn signal, but we decided to try and fix it instead. And we just happened to have an extra bulb in the trunk!

We were really lucky that a broken blinker was the only mishap on the trip. That and the continual fight against a dirty windshield. I HATE, I mean HATEEEEE when my windshield is dirty. When I got my first car when I was 16, I poured some Windex into a little travel hairspray bottle so that I’d always have a crystal clear windshield. But on this trip, I didn’t brink any Windex.

The only good reason that the Jeep is a gas guzzler is because it afforded lots of trips to the gas station. Davey would pump the gas and I’d head straight for the squeegee. Clean windshield, here I come!

Before

After

Ahhhh! All is right with the world again.

We were out of windshield washer fluid by the time we got to Colorado. Thank God that stuff is cheap. And thank God that a broken blinker and a dirty windshield were the only roadblocks we had! And thank God for Davey. He’s my favorite

28 is gonna be great

I’ve been 28 for almost a week and so far so good! Here’s a recap of my day…

Davey made me a delicious breakfast and since he knew I would take pictures of it, he spent extra time making it so pretty And the reason he made me two parfaits is not because I’m a pig, but because he couldn’t fit all that goodness into one cup. {Also, I totally just noticed this, but if you look close, my coffee is smiling at me from inside the coffee press. How perfect.}

Then we went to World Market, one of my favorite stores, just to look around. That store is like walking through Pinterest–I love it! Since it was my birthday, I got to pick out one treat. I went home with one of these. Can you guess which one?

We had a delicious chocolate cake with rocky road icing and rocky road ice cream. Yum. {Hopefully the rocky road theme is not an indication of what this next year is going to be like.}

Davey took me out to dinner, but since we just ate cake and ice cream, we decided to split this:

Then we went to Whole Foods to just walk around and look at all the colorful/healthy/beautifully arranged food, which is actually one of my favorite things to do. And since we ate wayyy too much cake and pasta, we and made ourselves feel better by taking pictures of healthy things and dreaming of having a garden someday.

But the best part of the night was saved for last. I really wanted to go to the movies, but we’re kinda short on cash right now, so we piled blankets, pillows and sleeping bags into the trunk of the Jeep, borrowed Starbucks’ internet from the parking lot and watched our shows on Hulu {The Office, Parks & Rec and Up All Night}. We ate candy, cheese-itz and chocolate with chili {We played is safe and picked the chocolate with the chili, although the chocolate and beef jerky was tempting. Did you guess right?!}. And we hid under the blankets every time someone walked by. It was awesome. Seriously, watching movies from our trunk is our new favorite thing. We decided that when we have kids, we’ll get a babysitter and just pile in the trunk to get away.

Dwight even showed up to wish me a happy birthday.

31 days of free coffee

Today’s my 28th birthday! Happy Birthday to me!

Speaking of birthdays and presents…

Davey got the coolest Christmas present ever. A coffee mug.

And we bring it to any Starbucks and get free coffee for the whole month of January–31 gloriously caffeinated days. Like I said, best present ever… especially for a road trip. The best part is that they don’t keep track of your cup of the day, so we filled it up multiple times each day until we got too jittery to drink any more.  During our road trip, I had Starbucks programmed into the GPS and we may or may not have chosen our hotels based on whether or not they had a Starbucks in the town. {But don’t worry, I still love Dunkin Donuts}

Did you know that a lot of Starbucks are really hard to find? And did you know that most Starbucks are inside  food stores?  We drove around in frustration multiple times looking for the beautiful green mermaid sign and finally found it inside an Albertson’s or Safeway.

Our most interesting detour took us into an army base where we had to wait in a long line of cars and show ID to get in. But it was worth it. Coffee is always worth it. We’re just sad that January is almost over and so our free coffee is almost over… but we’re milking it to the last drop!

Thanks for the cup, mom!

nothing without God

When trying to figure out a title for this post, I googled what the Colorado state motto is. Nil Sine Numine. It is commonly translated as “Nothing Without Providence” but this is not the translation that was originally intended. “Nothing without God” was the original intent and it’s perfect for this post. While in Colorado, we were constantly amazed at the beauty of God’s creation. Our first stop was the “Garden of the Gods”, which Davey and I renamed “Garden of God”.  After driving through flat fields for the previous 2 days, this was a sight for sore eyes. It was so beautiful that we decided to move there. Well, maybe someday. Until then, we just hiked around and admired the enormous monoliths.

Nothing without God.

Oh and I couldn’t drive through Colorado Springs without seeing Whit’s End. Did anyone else listen to Adventures in Odyssey when they were younger?!

It was awesome.