Girls Trip to Zion National Park...Day Two

Woke up early (about 6am) and met some of the girls for a couple morning hikes to Weeping Rock and Hidden Canyon Trail.

At Weeping Rock...had it all to ourselves at 7am! So beautiful and peaceful!

Rest stop on our way to the end of the Hidden Canyon Trail

SO thankful for the chains!!!

These are two of my favorite pictures...

We arrived!

Looking down at Weeping Rock

After the morning hikes we went back for breakfast and then met up with everyone for mid-day hikes to the Emerald Pools. It was incredibly hot as we hiked the trails. 

Resting at the Upper Emerald Pool

We had some free time that afternoon and then met up to do the Scenic Drive through the Tunnel. Then, we got out and did the Canyon Overlook Trail. 

California Girls

As we drove on after the trail to the Checkerboard Mesa we kept seeing these creatures on the rocks. Photo shoot!

The Checkerboard Mesa is behind me. Such different landscapes and scenery throughout the park. Zion is absolutely breathtaking. 

Girls Trip to Zion National Park...Day One

At the beginning of the year I planned a girls retreat weekend at Zion National Park. It's something that I've desired to do since I went there a few years ago with Josh and the kids. In the beginning of this year I started reading a book called Pursuing the Intentional Life and realized, "You know what, this is something I'm just going to go ahead and plan!"
So, last weekend seven girls from our church here in Utah packed up and met with 5 others from our mother church and another baby church in California.
It was three days of hiking, sharing, laughing, eating, and simply just being together. I'm so thankful for this weekend. It was such a huge blessing in my life-a gift from each of these beautiful women.

Off to the Riverside Walk and The Narrows hike

Utah Girls

The river behind us is the entrance to The Narrows

To hike up The Narrows...the river is the path

The water got deep and the current was strong in certain places

Beth, Jenn, and me

I think this is our only group photo on the trip!

The farther we went along the river, the closer the walls became

There's Jenn tying her shoe

If you look closely you can see people at the bottom of the left wall

On our way back out

Last Day of School

The school year has gone by so quickly! Rob and Allie's last day was this past Friday and Marcus finished on Monday. I can't believe summer is already here. And, I also can't believe that in the fall my oldest starts 7th grade, my middle starts 4th grade and my baby starts 2nd grade!
 I've never met a kid that was so sad that school was ending and that they were starting summer break. But, my kids were all bummed. Allie was the saddest of them all. She's already asked if she could call her teacher :)
When school got out on Friday Allie gave her teacher a long letter she had written that morning. I had walked her into class, she gave it to her and we were saying our good byes. Allie and I were getting choked up and teary eyed.
Looking back on this year we feel it has definitely been a great success.
Thank you, Jesus!

Daily Bible Study

For the last month Josh has been leading our family in Bible Study. Every day (mostly Mon.-Fri.) we get together in the living room (or we've done it on the floor of the boys' room before bed, too). Josh asks one of the kids to open us in prayer. Then he asks the kids if they have a question from their day and then he has the kids look up different Bible verses to help us answer the question. Allie is usually begging non stop to be chosen to look up and read a scripture.
Some of the questions have been:

Why does God love us? 

Why aren't we always happy? 

Why did God choose to put us on earth?
Why are some people mean?
Why do we do bad things when we don't want to?

Each of the kids will get a different verse to read. Josh will ask questions as we go along and we'll close in prayer. Josh is really good at keeping it short and simple. 

The kids really enjoy doing our family Bible study. When we started Allie didn't have a Bible that she could look up verses, it was more of a picture Bible. She was really wanting one so she could participate in looking up the Bible verses and reading them aloud with the boys. She got one and absolutely loves it! It blesses us to see her so excited about her Bible. I even found her sitting on her bedroom floor & leaning against a wall reading it one day. She had just read something that we had talked about in one of our Bible studies from the day before. So cool.

I'm so thankful that Josh is leading us in Bible study. He said that one day at prayer God told him to do it. It has been a wonderful thing for our family.