August First

The first of August....I smell the beginning of school just a little way off....I lament with my grandkids who are just not ready to get back into the grind again. Summer flew by on the Concorde. I always want to hang on to summer.....even though the weather yesterday was anything but pleasant....high temp...high humidity.

I uploaded all our trip pics. You can access those by clicking on Phoenix Summer 2008 gdevries8 on the left of the blog right at the top. Hope you will get a feel of the wonders of God's creation and the joy we had in experiencing it. While it wasn't the first time for either Ken or me, we noted that one forgets the magnitude of the thing. My friend and I spoke before we left and I mentioned something about beauty in different areas of the country. She said, "Every place is beautiful if you are looking for beauty." Those were wise and true words. Some places are simply outstanding and we saw some of those this trip.

When we sing of purple mountain majesty in the same song with the word America, we can sometimes get the idea that we have the corner on beauty in the good old USA. While we do have wonderful beauty here, I thought about beauty all over this earth and how no country can count their beauty over another. God has placed HIS beauty in all corners of the earth. We rightly praise Him for ours when we sing that song.

I suppose I'd better get myself back to Curves. My vacation is over. While I had good intent to go to a local Curves in Phoenix, I got there only once. Then I planned to go yesterday and didn't get it done so today is the day. A bit before seven I'll be sweating it out.