Thursday, July 26, 2007

On the Mount

Yesterday, we went to the mountains with the LifeLearners. We had planned the trip a few weeks ago when the heat was getting bad and we all desired to escape it. Funny enough, it was not very hot yesterday and thunderstorms threatened and, I hear, actually dumped rain in some places. As we drove up there, we passed through a rainy spot and the clouds were building above the mountaintop. Oh no, I thought, this is not going to be good. The gods were favoring us, I guess, because we did not suffer even a drop of rain or the threat of thunder and lightning the whole time we were at the picnic spot. It was cool and refreshing, there was water in the creek, the wildlife was abundant, and the company was as stimulating as ever!



I had fun taking this picture of the girls and my favorite tree. The one you see here is actually a composite image of two pictures, since my camera could not capture the whole of the scene. Oh how I love photoshop!


Here are some of the cute little critters we encountered up there. These little guys were totally not afraid to get close to us. One even jumped up on the tree trunk we were sitting on while taking pictures, but thought the better of it and jumped right back down. He was close enough to touch.

This is a picture of the girls and their friend S waaaaaay up high on the side of the canyon we were in. You can click on the picture to get the big one and see them inside the circle I drew around them. Anyway, after seeing how high they got and hearing their excited shouts, I felt the need to go join them up there. On the way up, a big rock got knocked down by another one of the kids, and tumbled past a few of us frightfully close, and came to rest next to the picnic table we were sitting at. I saw it all from my spot on the side of the hill. My heart was pounding so hard and fast from the adrenaline. I mean the rock was bigger than one little boys' head! It could have cracked his skull open. Yikes! Everyone who was climbing the hill headed down and when they were back down, I continued up to reach the girls at the top. I had to rest a few times to get my heart to settle down. Once up there, the girls were so excited to show me how cool it was up there.
After admiring the view, taking some pictures, and getting my heart rate down, I suggested we seek out a new route down. The way up had scared me too much to want to go down the same way! We hiked along the top for a while and found a much nicer way back down to the picnic area. The girls were so excited that we had explored and climbed together. Boy, how a little adrenaline can make you feel so alive! We headed home when the sun was getting low and the temperature dropped. It was a good day.

5 comments:

Caroline said...

What a great day. I love that picture of the tree. I'm sorry we missed it.
~Caroline

Shawna said...

Looks beautiful!!! Glad everyone was alright.

Tara W. said...

I LOVE the tree pic! Z saw you when you were takin that pic and thought you had fainted! hahaha

Anonymous said...

It looks so beautiful!

Darlene said...

I am sooo sorry we were not there also. I agree with Caroline I love the tree picture-persective