Some peace.

Near the end of a busy summer filled with weddings, work and preparations for the upcoming school year, I found the restoration and rejuvenation I needed in northern Arizona. The time away from all obligations and (most) communication gave me some space to breathe and connect with God more than I have been with the distractions of Wisconsin. I'll leave some pictures here, with a few comments about my most meaningful experiences.

First, Sedona. My favorite.

This was what I always pictured whenever the Grand Canyon was mentioned. Turns out Sedona is something else, but just as spectacular as I hoped.

I mean, look at that. What a cool creation.

An appropriate tribute to the artist behind it all :)
A few quiet moments to pray in the chapel up there gave so much more meaning to the beauty I got to see all week. 

Every time I see places like this I just want to get in and be a part of them. Admiring from afar doesn't do a whole lot for me, so being able to climb around in the red rocks gave me a whole new appreciation of them!

Flagstaff, where we lived for the week.

My reading rock in the woods directly behind our house :) Nothing like sunshine and quiet (besides the trains).
I got to do a lot of reading here, of some books I'll mention in another post. All of them were written by Christian authors and they were a wonderful mixture of thoughtful, convincing and encouraging.

Spent a lot of time watching and getting close to the trains in the back yard. My fascination/fear of trains definitely made it an exciting activity!

Train-watching rock, conveniently located above the tracks. If your wondering about the reading rock and this rock... yes, i do designate my rocks for specific activities.

Going up Humphrey's peak, the highest mountain in AZ. Views were a little hazy because of 3 forest fires we could see evenly spaced out in the distance, but it was still a cool experience.

Just another view in Flagstaff. Quite the contrast to the deserts and rock formations that made up our touring. It was a great place to come back to each night!

Meteor Crater.

This was one of the last things we did on our trip, after some begging on my part (c'mon dad, something from SPACE made a huge hole in the desert!) But seriously, isn't that cool? That thing is a mile across and three miles around!

On our 30-minute "tour" of the crater. Really just standing out in the sun while a guide told us the history of this place's discovery and exploration. Actually pretty fascinating. It took a LOT of convincing and years of research to convince the government that this is more than just "a hole" and a meteor created it.

Touching the real deal. This is the largest meteorite they found. So an actual piece of the meteor that made the crater. Really. This actual thing I am touching is a big chunk of metal that was once flying around in space, not a replica.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

And finally... the Grand Canyon.

Sunrise across the Canyon :)

The family on this trip minus dad! Sara, mom, me, Aunt Carrie, Rachel.

We hiked about 2 miles of trails into the Canyon, which was definitely rewarding. If I ever go back though, I'm going all the way in and spending some time down there. Like I said about the red rocks in Sedona - I want to be a part of it.

Preeeeetty crazy. I have an overwhelming desire to be able to be invincible and never get tired, so I could just climb around in things like this and explore every inch.

Yes. This sums up how the week made me feel.