Last week we went to the Huizenga family reunion (Mom's brothers and my cousins) in Rehoboth, New Mexico. My cousin Anna and her husband teach at Rehoboth Christian School, which is a school mainly for Navajo (and some Zuni) students. We stayed in the dorms on campus, and ate our meals in Kevin & Anna's backyard, cooked on 3 grills. Mom, Dad, and Jim drove up on the weekend, and then Scott and I flew into Albuquerque on Wednesday and drove back with them this past weekend.

Jim had gotten pretty carsick on the way to Rehoboth, and threw up in the car (and by the side of the car, and in the rest area...). I grabbed a barf bag from the plane and presented it to him at the airport.
I got 2 stamps in my National Parks Passport!! I got one at Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. It was very hot that day, and the 5 minute hike actually only took about 1 minute. On Thursday a bunch of my aunts, uncles, and cousins all drove to El Morro National Monument. There is a pool here that always has water--there isn't a spring, but all the canyons funnel the rain and snow melt to this pool, so it is usually full--so it was a good stopping point for exploreres, settlers, and Indians. The rocks are sandstone and very soft. People have been inscribing their names and other pictures and words on the stones for hundreds of years. You can see ancient Anasazi markings, names and inscriptions from the Spanish conquistadors, and young settlers heading West. After the area with the inscriptions, you climbed up to the top of the box canyon, and made your way around the edge to some Anasazi ruins. In the picture above you can see where the canyon curves around...we came up right by the tree, then scampered around on steps carved into the rocks. It was a good hike.
Scott came along on the reunion to meet my extended family and to spend some time together. My grandma really liked him! Here we are at El Morro. Needless to say, despite the multiple layers of SPF 36 sunblock, I got a little sunburned.
Dr. James Schaap, a prof a Dordt college who taught one of my classes, had written an article about the Rehoboth cemetary that was published in the most recent Banner (the publication of the Christian Reformed Church). I had read the article and it was very interesting, so Scott and I decided to hike to the cemetary. Unfortunately, I asked Mom how to get there when she was very tired, and the instructions she gave us were not very accurate. We ended up going the wrong way, and finally spied it in the opposite direction from on top of a big hill. As we got closer, we discovered the sign (above), which also pointed in the opposite direction of where the cemetary actually is. We eventually found it. It was interesting to see the mix of military and religious gravestones, and to see how Navajos and people of Dutch ancestry were all buried in the same place--a little merging of cultures.
Old grave markins with Resurrection Rock in the background.