This I Miss

One day, while sitting in a tube marveling at the mountains around me, I took this picture so I would never forget the feeling of being there.

I knew I was going to

miss it terribly.

There are several things that I miss about being out West.

I miss watching my kids soak in the view.
I miss being grungy and being OK with that.

I miss the smell of sage as we were riding horses in the mountains.

I miss spending a lot of quality time with my parents. It was so nice to have them with us.

I miss just hanging around and playing games.

(I especially miss seeing my dad relax!)

I miss seeing my kids being themselves and just having good, clean fun.

I miss seeing wild bears . . . oh wait . . . I don't really miss that. I miss going for walks in nature. I miss the beautiful and unusual scenery.

(doesn't John look handsome in that shirt? . . . just sayin')

Believe it or not, I actually miss the long hours in the van.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful and the company was great.
My parents were with us (yes, that makes SEVEN of us in the van!! . . . with all of our stuff). It was fun to have them with us.

We drove over 4,000 miles!!!

I miss seeing wild animals along the side of the road. Can you believe that I let my children get this close to a wild moose??

What was I thinking?
A local woman in her pickup truck drove by and yelled at me.
I won't do it again . . . I promise.

(Unless it's a really cool animal that I just have to have a picture of.) I miss seeing the mountains during the "golden hour".

(sigh)

I miss tubing in a chilly mountain river.

I miss seeing so many rainbows.I miss eating out at unique restaurants.
I miss being together as a family 24/7 . . . really being together.(By the way . . . this was the view outside of the cabin that we stayed in.)
I miss looking out the car window and seeing buffalo.
I miss feeling like I was flying in an airplane even though I had both of my feet planted on the ground.
I miss being able to have a snowball fight in August!!
It was COLD up at the top of those mountains!

(we had to drive OVER the mountain to get to Yellowstone)

We want to go back!

But until we can, we will just enjoy the memories.

Bittersweet

I always get a little bit sad when my babies go back to school.

I would like it if I could have them by my side forever and always.

Last year, I home schooled Caroline and it was lovely, but now it is time for her to go back. It makes me so very happy to see them with their buddies. Is it just me, or does Caroline look so much older??

(check out her new kickers . . . she adores them!!)

Luke will be starting pre-K next week. I'll have to admit that I am pretty excited that I will have two and one half hours to myself four days a week.

What will I do??

:)

Out of the Ordinary

Look what we found in South Dakota.

It's called Devil's Tower and we thought it was pretty cool.

Now this isn't something we see every day.

I had the kids sit and just look at it for a while . . .

just soak it in.

We saw this at the base of Devil's Tower . . . another thing we don't see every day. That is what I loved about our trip out West. . . we saw so many out of the ordinary things.

Blessed Beyond Measure

Right now, I am feeling so very blessed.

Blessed beyond measure.

Blessed because we still have our precious little Caleb with us.

On Sunday, my sweet nephew, Caleb, had a near drowning experience. He had taken his life jacket off for lunch at his grandparents' pool and forgot that he wasn't still wearing it.

To make a very long horrible/wonderful story short . . . they had to air lift him to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Many people prayed. . .

and prayed. The Lord answered our prayers and worked a miracle in Caleb's little body.
The doctors said that Caleb is a lucky little guy.
We know that it had nothing to do with luck at all.

Now he is back in his Mommy's and Daddy's arms and is doing as well as ever.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Your prayers meant so much to us.

A friend of ours' sent us this verse while we were waiting for more news about Caleb's condition.

"the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore"

(Psalm 121:8).

Life is so very fragile.

It makes me feel secure knowing that God is watching over us.

God has a plan for little Caleb.

His plan is not finished yet.

Caleb will always have a story to tell about what happened on Sunday and he will always know that God wanted him to be on this earth for a purpose. I'm excited to see what that purpose is.

:)

Mt. Rushmore

I was going to try to do one post about our entire trip out West, but it overwhelmed me.

So, I will show you one place each day. :)

One of my favorite spots was Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

When we first walked in and saw "the heads", I couldn't help but get goosebumps. (even though it was like 100* outside)

It was surreal.

I have seen so many pictures of this, but being there was so very different.

It just seemed so . . . patriotic.

It made me feel proud to be an American.

While I was busy feeling all patriotic and American, the rest of my family was sniffing the ponderosa pines. Did you know that they smell like vanilla??

This is what the presidents were supposed to look like, but they ran out of carvable granite.
One thing I liked so much about Mount Rushmore was the presidential path. It was a beautiful path through the woods. We could see the presidents from all different angles.

And smell the ponderosa pines . . .

I really love this place.


Do you know why they chose these four presidents??

The sculptor believed that these presidents represented the history of the United States.

George Washington represented the birth of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson represented the growth of the United States.

Abraham Lincoln represented the preservation of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt represented the development of the nation.

I am thankful for what each of these presidents did for our nation.