Happy Easter!

Our day didn't go as planned, but it was an AWESOME day! A great ending to a wonderful first weekend in Arizona with my husband and Baxter.

We started out our Easter Sunday with church services at 8:50. We had planned on attending the 7:30, but I think that the time change is finally catching up with me. Matt had also wanted to see what their traditional services are like (because that is what he prefers), but the 8:50 service was contemporary. However, there were still many traditional aspects to the service. All-in-all, it was very nice. I say it that way because I think that personally, this will be the hardest change besides not seeing the children. I really love our church home at Faith. However, as Matt reminded me, these churches out here are so new. They do not have the following yet like a well established church like Faith. Plus, we just don't have the population of people here like in Troy. Rison Savior Lutheran is the largest church in the area with the exception of driving into Phoenix proper. There are approximately 300 in attendance at each service (there are 4 services on Sunday), and there is Children's Church at two of the services which is great. This is what it looks like:

It is very pretty!! We do want to visit again this coming week, and we do want to visit their traditional services next. There are 4 more churches, though, that we want to visit in the area, so we believe it may be a while before we make a decision on a church home.

We came home, ate a snack, made our sack lunches, and then headed over to our second hike for the weekend. LOL, if we only knew our leisure hike was going to turn into mountain climbing! Matt just kept saying, "Let's just go a little further...Let's just go a little further." Once we knew that we had the endurance to make it to the top of Superstition's Flat Iron, the highest peak, we just couldn't say no. Our hike lasted 6 hours! Getting to the top was the most empowering thing I have ever done! It made me stop and realize that anything I am determined to do, I can probably do. And look at my reward:

The most beautiful view you could imagine! And unfortunately, the pictures just do not do it justice. You really have to be there to believe it. It was so funny because after our hike/climb we met this older couple (we believe late 60s) and they asked if we had enjoyed our hike and where our day had taken us. We told them that we had just hiked/climbed Flatiron for the first time, and the man said, "Well, I'll be...I'd like to shake your hand!" And he did! He told us that it had been about 3 years since he had did it because he wasn't in that sort of shape any longer...but let me tell you, he looked in great shape! I must admit, it blew up our egos a little :-)

It was the most remarkable day! It was such a great Easter gift from God. I thank him for giving us such amazing places like The Flatiron to deeply understand the love that he has for this beautiful universe...and for us!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with their family and friends.