Arizona: Streams in the desert

Arizona is filled with contrasts! Driving into Arizona from Southern California you enter a true desert landscape...low shrubs and cactus, rocks, with mountains in the distance. Did I mention lots of rocks! We stayed one night in Quartzsite on our way to the center of the state to visit our kids and grand-kids. 

An oasis in the desert, the Verde Valley contains areas filled with Palo Verde trees, Cottonwood Trees and other types of plants and trees nestled between hills and mountains, following the ribbon of water that is the Verde Watershed. What a delightful contrast to the desert around it!

This beautiful spring was along the Parsons Trail near Clarkdale, AZ. Steve and I hiked about 4 miles total of a much longer out and back trail. The landscape and vegetation was constantly changing. The beginning of the trail was a steep drop in with an elevation change of 810 ft to bring us from the parking lot down to the elevation of the river.

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,  the fruit of the womb is a reward.  -Psalm 127:3

Our young grandchildren bring such joy to our hearts when we come to visit them in Arizona. They are so easy to enjoy, full of life and curiosity, open with their emotions, finding joy in simple things, constantly exploring and learning.

Watching your own children being parents is an opportunity to see the values that you worked hard to instill in them being passed on to a future generation, your heritage being played out before your eyes.

Simple things bring back memories of things you did with your children. We had a simple outing of returning library books with Abbie and Hannah and Ava. Well, can any outing be simple with a 3 year old and a one year old and all the effort of getting them into their car seats, trying to ignore the fussing and crying because they don’t want to be still in the car? 

Oh, but Hannah’s excitement to run into the library when we got out of the car! What a great library in Verde Valley! A very inviting children’s area was well laid out for children to learn to enjoy the world of books!  Books displayed on low shelves inviting children to pick them up and explore the adventure of stories. And, an outdoor, grassy and shaded play area gave relief for some running and laughing out loud. 

 

Trips to the library, a pool and parks were a highlight of the week when we were raising Brent, so I loved to see that Abbie and Brent are instilling in their girls a love for books and libraries and parks and exploration. I am so thankful that we can include time with family in Arizona during our first week of our travels!