A Day in the Rockies

Psalm 121:1-2 "I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains,
from whence cometh my help. 

My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth."

It all started last Wednesday.  My mom was seeking the Lord about the schooling for the day, and He brought her to this verse.  She took it as, "Forget the books for the day, and take the kids up to the mountains for the day."  She shared this with us, and of course, we all were enthusiastic about it, for who would rather spend a day doing math, then hiking in the Rockies?!  Within an hour we were on our way up to Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was the perfect day for our outing - sunny and fifty, with hardly a cloud in the sky.  This time we were prepared for the cold weather; we brought layers, winter hats, and mittens! 

We started on the path that we had barely gotten onto our previous trip.  We got a lot farther this time!  We stopped along the way, viewing the mountains, taking pictures, looking at a chipmunk, taking pictures, etc....
We got to this one spot, I don't know the name, but there was a lake with a mountain in the background.  It was beautiful!  We continued our journey upward and all of a sudden Shane and Anna were climbing this HUGE rock, (I don't know what you would call it, cause it's not just a rock, but it's not big enough to be called a hill, but it was big enough to fall off of and die).  Shane got to the top and then yelled down, "Bailey! You HAVE to come up and get a picture of this!"  So, with camera in pocket, I started climbing up the rock.  Then Charlie started following me, unaware of the danger. :S  Even though Mom walked behind him, it was a little unnerving, cause again, he didn't know the danger of falling.  Alas, we made it to the top (alive) and were stunned at the beauty!  I saw for miles, the mountains, the valleys, the lake - it was breathtaking!! 

And people actually think this happened by chance!!!

We were trying to set up the camera for a self-timer pic, but alas, rocks being, well, "rocky" it wasn't working. :P  All of a sudden we heard voices and then saw a bald head, climbing on the mountain.  So, he took our picture for us! =)

 

 

Anyhoo....we stayed on the huge rock, for a few more minutes, then made the "dangerous" decent down (alive) and started hiking again. About twenty feet up the path we took a fifteen minute break, and in that time Shane went ahead, and then all of a sudden he was a tiny speck on top of a mountain!  It was so cool!

see him doing the muscle pose? :P

After that glorious view, we started hiking again.  Around every corner was a new view of the majesty, and around each turn there was the anticipation of  "What are we going to see next?"  We got off the trail, and climbed down the rocks to find a mountain creek!

Then we got back on the path and climbed for ten more minutes, and then we saw it - Andrew's Glacier!
Funny story:  Charlie was look at a book about the Rocky Mountains, and he flipped to a page, and there was a picture of a glacier.  And I saw it and thought, I'm pretty sure I have seen that before!  And I think I know right where that is!   So, we were driving through Rocky Mountain National Park, and sure enough, we come to a field with a view of the mountains, and right there is Andrew's Glacier - the picture that was in the book!  (I just thought that was kinda funny)  Anyways, back to the story......where was I?  Oh, Andrew's Glacier.  A little bit past the glacier was our destination:  Dream Lake.  We got there, and it was breathtaking!  I don't know if I liked the view of the mountains on the HUGE rock, or the view of Dream Lake better, it's a hard decision!  Oh......it is SO GORGEOUS!!! 

OK, so that actually isn't the place we visited, it was WAY more pretty! A camera just can't capture all the splendor! (I'm just kidding, that is the place we went.)

there's me. =)

I took a couple's picture for them, and then decided that is where I want to take my engagement pictures! Definitely!  After a few minutes of basking in the beauty, we made our way back to the bottom of the mountain. :(    On our way down we got a different view of the lake, and while the others wanted a picture on the rock, Charlie wanted a pic of him laying on the log.  :P

Oh yeah! I almost forgot to tell you about the chipmunk!  All of a sudden there was this little chipmunk, and Shane put out his hand, and the chipmunk grabbed him!!  He was so startled he let go.  And I got my camera ready, but I was out of memory, so I couldn't delete fast enough to get the second time when the chipmunk grabbed him!  It was so funny!! 
Alas, that was the end to our amazingly-fantabulous-fun day!!  I guess the moral of the story is this:
When God tells you to do something, you should do it, cause it's way better than any of our plans!