Oh, the Places We Have Been!

I woke this morning to the sound of Doug reading Dr. Seuss to our little early risers.  I closed my eyes and thanked God with all my heart for the amazing husband and beautiful children He has given me, then came and snuggled down next to them to hear another story read by my favorite pastor.  It was such a sweet moment of peace.  

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of events!  We've been busy with all the exploring and hiking we can get before the snow falls.  We've visited friends, attending social events and of course, there's the whole gallbladder thing.  Along with that, our church celebrated "Christmas in August" this Sunday - such a fun reminder that we don't have to wait for December to celebrate! 


Here is a self-portrait I took in Doug's sunglasses when we were at the Clark's Fork trailhead.  You can see the waterfall behind me.  When Cooke City was a mining town, they used the force of this water to create electricity. 

Charissa always dresses with such style and class for these outings.  I just wear jeans, but this girl is into the frills and leggings.  Oh, and don't forget the Disney Princess bucket to hold rocks, sticks and anything else she might find :-)

An awesome, curvy piece of wood.  I'm in love with dead wood.  It's so unique!

The steep bridge over the rushing creek.

Brandt loves to dash around in the woods.  

Here, Doug is demonstrating the reason we dress Brandt in overalls as often as possible.  He was running off into the woods again.

This picture is titled "Babe in the Wilderness".  He told me just to leave him there.

"Put a sippy cup of milk, cheerios and some grapes in the clearing each morning.  I'll be fine."

I wouldn't leave you, sweet boy.  Who would make me laugh daily?  Who would give me slobber kisses?  Who would stick his finger up my nose during prayer time? 

Charissa and I show our cheesy grins.

This pic is from Lulu Pass.  It is an old miner's cabin!  There are dozens of these throughout the mountains.

Charissa in her practical shoes standing in a huge snow bank on top of Lulu.

A stunning sunset from the top of the pass.

This is a fire near Cody, WY.  I thought the smoke was just beautiful.

Charissa rings the church bell for Christmas in August while wearing her Christmas dress!

This was another trip up into the mountains northeast of us.  I'm sure this pool doesn't have a name, but the rock field and blue skies were so spectacular.

Again, Charissa shows us how a girl should dress for these excursions.  Note her Mossy Oak hat ;-)

Family picture time!  Our friend, Ed, came along and snapped a picture of the whole family!  That doesn't happen to often.

We found an old mine up in the hills and started cracking rocks with Ed's hammer.  We found some silver!  There is a bit of gold, copper and zinc as well.  You can see the vein of quartz with the silver on either side.  Miner's would be on the lookout for a vein of quartz and then would start digging. 

Charissa found some Indian Paintbrush in a purple hue I had never seen before.

Some more dead wood.  See how twisted it is?  I love it!

Ed pans for gold with a bunch of rocks he picked up from the mine.  He found a couple flecks!

We all went foot (and bum) skiing down another snow field.  So much FUN!

Doug and Charissa come to a screeching halt at the end before getting all muddy.

I've decided to wait another week before starting "school" for Charissa.  My family is coming on the 4th-11th (whoo-hoo!) and my Mom is bringing me a bunch of books for Charissa.  We are going to be doing Five in a Row Volume 1, obviously with a lot of adaptions for a 3 year old!  I don't want to pressure her, but she keeps asking to do school and learn to read (!!!), so I guess we'll start on that!  We're having a lot of fun in the meantime.  And besides, living IS learning!