A Glimpse of What the North Rim of the Grand Canyon Has to Offer

We went on a three day trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with my parents, Ron and Robin, and my younger brother Colby. We tried to pay for most of the trip because it was a thank you to my mom and dad for helping us sell our jeep, but it never works out the way you want to. They are too generous sometimes!

After seeing a little section of the Grand Canyon from the top it makes me want to see all of it from the bottom from the view of a raft. Maybe some day that will come true. We had a great time. We hiked a little ways down into the Canyon on the Kaibab Trail. That is the trail where you can hike all the way to the bottom and up the other rim if you wish. We went 2 miles down but the 2 miles up were not easy. We sat in on a ranger talk about the history of all the layers of rock formations. My mom wanted to stay and listen to the ranger talk about the Condors, but we had our own little educational session on those birds back at our cabin thanks to the iphone and wikipedia. We cooked out for breakfast and dinner. We also made my dad who is extremely afraid of heights drive us close to the cliff edges so we could get a view of the Colorado River. Please enjoy some pictures from our trip!

Colby, Kristy, and Gideon on the Kaibab Trail heading down.

Robin and Ron on the Kaibab Trail heading down.

Gideon found a really high rock to stand on!

Colby and Gideon had to keep going down the Kaibab Trail and at least get to the bridge before they turned around. So they hiked a little longer than the rest of us.

A cool plant that we had never seen before. Is it related to the the silver sword that we saw in Maui? That is our question! Please leave a comment if you know the answer.

Some more flora from our hike.

Angels Window with the Colorado River behind.

A gross squirrel digging the mule poop to find grain.

The mules only go down two miles into the canyon too!

My mom loves the mules, but not the smell of mule pee.

In front of our cabin we stayed at for two nights!

Where Is Home?

We are a little over halfway through our summer break back in the States and we are starting to truly miss our life in Phnom Penh. We have loved being in the States getting to visit with family and friends, gorging ourselves with food we had been depraved of, running and not being completely drenched in sweat after the first 10 minutes, spending time in the outdoors, and catching up on American culture (who knew that the game Angry Birds was so popular). While we were in Cambodia we dreamed and talked quite a lot about doing all of these things. We couldn't wait to get back "home." Now that we have been here for over a month and moving from house to house we are ready to be in our home in Cambodia. We really feel like we are on a really long vacation and can't wait to be back in some routine.

We miss seeing all of our c0-workers and friends in Phnom Penh. We miss driving our moto. We miss our students. We miss being in our own apartment. We miss the yummy mangos from our landlords. We miss the guy who watches our moto while we buy our weekly groceries. Yet we know that when we return to Cambodia we will yet again miss the people and things that we are leaving behind here. Through the transition of going back and forth from one side of the world to the other we get to really experience the truth that our home is not here

on earth at all. In neither place do we feel completly comfortable and at home because the only place we should feel that will be in heaven. All we can do is enjoy the places that God takes us to.

Enjoy some pictures of our summer adventures so far. We have three more weeks of adventures here so expect more pictures!

Gideon with our niece, Leah!

In Vail, CO for a couple of hours!

Bowling with Kristy's parents, Ron and Robin!