Well, here we are at about 6 1/2 months pregnant. Two weeks prior to this point, Nick finished his first year of law school with much relief. It was a tough year for both of us, but we are so thankful to God for His mercies and provisions. Obviously, one great gift is the impending birth of our sweet little boy, Thomas Jackson. (and yes, we are telling people the sex AND the name prior to his birth- -horrors! After all, he IS currently a person, is he not?) Some other wonderful mercies are Nick's two intern positions this summer: a research assistantship with a professor and an internship with the Tennessee Supreme Court. He's really looking forward to both of these, and I'm looking forward to his 8-hour days instead of his 12 to 14-hour ones:)
To celebrate a year victorious, we decided to take a much needed vacation. As you can see by the toll that law school has taken, it was imperative that we get away somewhere:
Nick suggested that we go to Arizona to see the wonderful sights, since he had never been to that part of the country. I was pretty excited, having been to Arizona three times before, visiting most of the main attractions there. I really looked forward to sharing God's magnificent handiwork with him.
We began our week-long journey in Tucson, visiting the Phil Henry family. These are friends from our former residence/church, Church of the Good Shepherd in Bloomington. In fact, they had left Bloomington a few years prior to our leaving for Nashville, as Phil had been ordained as a PCA pastor. He is now a pastor at Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church. When they left Bloomington, they had three children. Now, they have six (their sixth, Stasie, was taking a nap during this picture. She is 3 months old.) Pictured here, moving clockwise from the top is Phil, Polly (his wife), Fitch (age 8), Lydia (age 10), Noah (age 4), Maggie (age 6- she was a baby the last time I saw her!), and Grace (age 2). We had an absolute blast with the Henry's, and their hospitality was nothing short of gracious. It was really fun to get to know them again, and to acquaint ourselves with newer members of their family.
Here are Fitch and Maggie entertaining us with their musical skills.
Lydia, the up-and-coming mother hen:)
Noah, who is definitely all boy.
Gracie, our ever-eager camera model. We loved how she always covered her mouth like that when she giggled.
Polly and me preparing dinner in the kitchen. I really appreciated her wisdom on childrearing, homemaking and childbirth. Nick and I left there with an omer of knowledge on raising a godly family.
The Henry's let us stay in their parents' vacation house, which sits at the foothills of the Santa Catalina mountains. It was truly above and beyond our expectations!
View from the front porch. Santa Catalinas in background.
The interior of our little vacation palace.
After a day or two of getting settled in, we decided to head north, and spent the day in Sedona, which is about 3 hours from Tucson. I had been to Arizona a few times before and had visited this national "top ten" beauty, but I was more excited to have Nick experience the almost "other worldness" of it.
We decided to hike near Cathedral Rock. According to new-age, channeling, wacko, hippie experts, there is an extremely strong vortex at the base of this rock formation. Before we got there, I joked that we would probably run into a bunch of hippies meditating or calling on their vortex god. Well, it was no joke. We ran into what seemed to be like guided meditation/yoga/whatever.... to my embarrassment, Nick immediately started taking pictures of them like they were monkeys in the zoo. I don't think they noticed, though.
This is probably the most magnificent view in Sedona. Truly breathtaking. We broke into "How Great Thou Art" when we saw it:
We thought this sign was hilarious:
After fun in the sun Sedona, we stayed about 28 miles north in Flagstaff. The interesting thing about Flagstaff is that 1) it is somewhat green and has alot of trees, where Sedona looks more like the surface of Mars, and 2) there was about a 15 degree drop in temperature! Two COMPLETELY different worlds. The next morning, we made our way to the Grand Canyon. Nick had never even seen a PICTURE of the Grand Canyon before, and I remembered how awed I was when I first saw it, so I made him close his eyes until we got to the very edge.
My Grand Canyon cowboy (who was standing about 4 feet away from death in this picture. I couldn't get him away from that edge fast enough!)
(And yes, Lauren, I've put more weight on him since we last saw you:)The last full day we were in Arizona, we went with Polly and kids to the top of Mt. Lemmon, which is on the outskirts of Tucson. I think that the average temperature in Tucson was about 98 degrees, but when we got to the top of Mt. Lemmon, it felt to be about 68 degrees. Polly told us that in the wintertime, the summit gets a considerable amount of snow, but if you drive down into Tucson (about a thirty minute drive), it is summertime!
Views from Mt. Lemmon, looking down into Tucson
We left late in the afternoon that Sunday, so we were able to visit Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church and hear Phil preach. We enjoyed both the church and the sermon, and we are pleased to report that the sermon was thorough, but only about 35 minutes this time:) We are so grateful to the Lord that He provided this time of rest, recreation, and fellowship. We hope to share adventures like this with our children in the future, that they may see the majesty of God reflected in His handiwork.
