What I Did on my Summer Vacation...

I sat in the car for a reeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyy looooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.



And saw some of the most amazing places on earth. And met some amazing people. Oh, and hung out with some of the most fantastic people ever. I decided that these three weeks beat five hours on an airplane, hands down.

(I'm not awesome at chronicling everything we did in specific detail like Mama D. But I had fun summarizing things on FB. So, I'm putting in all of my descriptions and linking to Mama D, Ben and Hosanna for more pics and details, that way you can see all the fun we had!)

"And we're off, like a herd of turtles! I'm armed to the teeth with audiobooks, new music, and some great kiddos. (Thanks, friends!) Next stop, one of my favorite places in the world: CRC! Farewell, fb world, no internet until at least Monday. Let the adventure begin! :D"

Day 1: Drive farther than ever before? check. Days 1-5 take lots of naps, play games, swim in waterfalls, absorb amazing teaching and spend time with friends at one of my favorite places ever? check. California tomorrow? YES. YES. YES. Hooray for adventures!

The whole crew at Silver Falls (Ben is hiding....)

I got some much needed Vicky Time! (and we were tourists. Notice the sign behind us!)

Monday: drove 500 miles and drove 1st mtn pass ever. Tuesday: Yosemite National Park. GORGEOUS BEYOND COMPARE. GO! Also met ranger Dave Crockett. No joke. Wednesday: drove 300+ miles and 2 mtn passes, Kings Canyon NP, and saw Giant Sequoias. Tomorrow: Big Fat Greek Family time with Jeremiah Diacogiannis and Ashleigh Newton. Woot Woot. This road trip stuff is pretty great... :D

General Grant Tree - 2nd Largest in the WORLD.

3 lovely days in Santa Barbara with fantastic people. bad sunburn. OUCH! 1 stinking hot night in some town in Arizona. Route 66. GRAND CANYON. Oh, so AMAZING! Now a couple days with the lovely Barbara Ellis in Phoenix. First car issues, but all is easily fixed. Thanks Jesus! :D lots of fun in the sun!

Flat Cat and I at the Grand Canyon!




My Grand Canyon shot of the day:




Hosanna! The coolest almost 14 year old I know. (we used to be roomies. It was fantastic!)



Swimming in Pastor Barb's lovely pool!

Rain storms in the desert are crazy amazing. So is the CONSTANT lightning. Things that are not so amazing: cranky children, tent trailers in New Mexico in August: muggy, hot and sticky. And water leaks in said tent trailer. oh my. thankful that each day we are given sufficient grace. (and swimming pools!)

drove by the place they tested the Atomic bomb. {sad} went through a police checkpoint {weird} got kicked out of a national monument because they were testing a missile {eerie}. got stuck behind a "snow plow" & went sledding in New Mexico {unexpected & FUN}. Ate at Chili's for the first time {yum!} I ♥ crazy, random, awesome days!

White Sands. The sand is a really different consistency (made of Gypsum crystals).

It really looks, like snow, hey?!

my shot of the day:

Today: 2 more police check points (one looking for illegals, one for DUIs), nearly making roadkill out of a tarantula, time zone change twice, downpour rainstorm, a couple hours in Texas, and a trip to Carlsbad Caverns (AMAZING ^2). :D good day.

Sunset in Carlsbad. {Photo by Hosanna}

A cool bug Elijah found at Carlsbad:

Saturday: woke up in New Mexico. drove over 600 miles (filled up with gas 3 times in 3 different states), got 32 oz slushies for $.69 in Texas, almost got hit by a 2 foot high tumbleweed blowing across the highway. Discovered how obnoxiously loud cicadas could be, and went to bed in Oklahoma. Sunday: BBQ with friends and basically the entire day spent in pools. Huzzah!

in Texas. Melting. Tomorrow is my last day with my Greek family {sad}. We'll be spending most of it in the pool {hooray!!!}. Then Wednesday morning, I finally arrive at YWAM. {Wohoo!!}

KatiRose now officially lives in Texas. weird. It's been a wonderful couple days settling in at the base and meeting awesome people. Orientation starts tomorrow! :)

me in my new homeland!

Today is the Day!

It's here! It's here!

Let the adventure begin!

In case you are fuzzy on the details, here's what I will be doing again.

What?: Another YWAM school. The school is called Teachers For the Nations (henceforth referred to here as TFN)

It's a teacher training school that prepares teachers to go out and disciple nations through education of children. :D

Where?: Texas. Tyler, Texas to be exact.

That's about an hour and 1/2 east of Dallas.

and I'll be at the Dayspring Campus of the Tyler base.

When?: TODAY! Actually my school starts August 26th, but my Greek Family and I are road -trippin it up, so we're taking our time to get there!

How Long?: 9 months +2 month outreach phase = 11 months

(August- May lecture, outreach June & July)

Why?: My heart passion is for Uganda and the children there. I believe that this training will be greatly beneficial to better equipping me to serve there. I want to do the best I can to be prepared and come with the most that I can offer, and this seems to be a great stepping stone. My hope is that after this school, I will be able to go back to Uganda long term and help in discipling the next generation and equip them to be world changing followers of Jesus Christ.

any more questions?????

I'm happy to answer them!

Please, please, please keep me in your prayers!

It's beginning to look a lot like August...

my plans for August include:

dance parties, tearful see you laters, ghetto paintball, waterfalls, lots of naps, excellent teaching, 3000 miles of driving, SoCal beaches, loads of camping, the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, three new states, one crazy Big Fat Greek Family, little girls with a million questions, lots of use for the bluetooth headset, visiting old friends, packing my life into my car, good books to be finished, ending up two time zones away from where I started, and another amazing adventure with Jesus. Yes please.

{5 days!}