Lake City- The great outdoors

Every bit of our time in Lake City was filled with seeing the beautiful outdoors, majestic mountains, blue skies & the continual opportunity to explore. Robby, having traveled to Lake City on multiple occasions had the desire to climb to a substantial peak. Scott & Kyle were on board first & after some convincing, I committed to join them. I was nervous since I can't even run a mile without feeling like I am going to throw up. We set off for our grand adventure before 7am & arrived at the trailhead. We were looking good & full of energy. There was a chill in the air, we smiled for a photo & were off! I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Colorado 14ers until after our big adventure. There are 53 peaks in Colorado that are 14,000 feet or higher & we climbed #6, Mt. Uncompahgre, which happens to be the highest peak in the San Juan mountain range. Had I know this ahead of time, I might have backed out, so it worked out well! 

The three of them gave me a hard time for stopping to tie my shoes & apply sunscreen about 100 feet down the path THEN stop to grab a snack about 100 feet later.  After that, I felt prepared to press onward & upward. I was surprised that it wasn't quite onward & upward. There were a lot of hills as we made our way through the woods & we came out the other side above the tree line. We could see that peak in the trailhead picture & believed it to be our destination.....boy were we wrong. After a bit longer, Mt. Uncompahgre came into view & I am pretty sure our jaws dropped. It looked massive & WAY too far away! The couple that took our photo, Colorado residents, & their cute little puppy jaunted past & we smiled & continued. 

I am not a worker-outer & could tell fairly quickly that it was going to be intense. We had never experienced anything like that before. All said & done, it was just under 8 miles & the equivalent of climbing 266 flights of stairs. 14,309 ft. starting at 11,430 ft. A 2,879 ft climb to the summit. It took somewhere between 5-6 hours of nearly constant movement. Once we made it above tree line, we spotted a large canvas tent out in the middle of a field. We passed by as I commented that I would like to plop down in one of the chairs. At that point, another young couple speedily moved past us. The higher we got, the harder it was, we were breathing hard. & not spending too much time chit chatting.  Scott captured a quick video of me saying "I wish Dad were here. He'd take me home!" Funny though, no one ever said they wanted to abort mission. 

After making it up to the next attainable goal, we hit the switchbacks. It looked impossible, really impossible. At that point, Kyle the Eagle Scout began saying "10 more steps." He counted for us & we would stop for a quick breather. Both of those couples we started ahead of saw us on their way down, assured us it was worth it & when we asked about the peak told us that  there was a little scramble at the end. 

After much huffing & puffing, we arrived at the base of the scramble. It was far from little! Scott was the first one there & took off at full speed. I think he was so tired that he just wanted to get it over with. It might not have been the best idea but we weren't going to quit when we were so close to the peak! Here is a picture from the top looking down. The way up was a challenge but going down was terrifying. Rocks were falling & we felt so unsteady.

Back to the summit....

While incredibly magnificent, it was terrifying! Kyle won the award for being the bravest. He stood up on the peak while we were sitting just feet below & took a panoramic shot. I figured it would be scary to be 6 foot 3 instead of my height! After our photo shoot & a snack, we braved the scooting carefully down the falling rocks. 

I could not have made it without my camel who offered to carry my pack!

While I imagined that the trip down would be incredibly easy compared to the opposite. Again, SO wrong! We had noodle knees & were just plain tired. My feet hurt terribly & I began to run down the path. I figured the more quickly the torture was over the better! We were really excited we made it. I think we each kept in mind, "Don't be THE quitter." After it was over, we all admitted that if someone had said they would like to turn back, someone would have joined them, haha!

 All smiles again!

That tent we passed was unable to be seen at the start of the descent but once it was in view, we again had an attainable goal. Finally we passed it, made it another million steps down the mountain and arrived at the jeep. A few days later, while a storm rolled in, I had a beautiful view of what we climbed. It was slightly hidden but is the pointy peak on the far right. 

 

I am beyond glad that we didn't give up & I could not have asked for better hiking buddies. I would do it again! Maybe we will try another 14er now that I know they exist : ) 

Another big adventure was for the girlies to join Robby & his dad on an all day trek around the Alpine Loop in the jeeper beeper as Arlo calls it. They took a detour to Silverton for lunch & shopping...of course! 

We did some "hiking" with the kiddies too.

                                       

Eloise, our nature lover found everything beautiful. She marvels when I do not. I am convicted. at how quickly I move (except for when I am climbing Mt. Uncompahgre) & how often I miss the beauty of something God made for us to enjoy. Robby found the perfect shirt for that sweet & spunky girl. It says "Blazer of Trails, Buster of Moves, Force of Nature" SO her! Ah, those dimples : )

 All the rest of the crew enjoyed their fair share of exploring as well!

 

We saw lots of chipmunks, some marmots & even some moose!

From start to finish it was a wonderful thing to enjoy as a family & we felt especially blessed to have both sets of grandparents & two uncles with us. We look forward to many more adventures with these five.

Celebrating Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, I requested to take a trip over to the neighborhood wildflowers and have Robby take some pictures of me with the Fab Five.  I really enjoy taking pictures and am often behind the camera, so this time we swapped places! We spent about 5-10 minutes & they were so sweet to smile. Robby always tells the grumpy kids that don't want to smile, "this is a way that you can love mommy well." So true.

Our photo shoot was sandwiched between sleeping in (7:30 am), breakfast & homemade cards, church, and then later, one INCREDIBLE dinner prepared by my own personal chef.

From Robby & Anson

Owen made me a necklace out of K'nex....I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow made an engagement ring for his future wife out of those. It is how he shows that he loves me : ) 

Dinner was Osso Bucco, one of my favorites. The girlie-pies prepared the table & joined us for the fancy feast.

We finished up with a game of CLUE. It was fun until it wasn't, we were all a bit frustrated that we couldn't figure out a piece of the puzzle. Turned out that when we gave up & opened the confidential file, it contained one suspect, two rooms & NO weapon! We called it quits, tried not to tease anyone that might have selected the three cards, tucked the girls in & relaxed.

The in-between was a sweet gift....

I certainly cannot leave out that husband of mine who leads our family in such beautiful ways.

We walked through two and a half years asking the Lord to bless us with a child & when He did, we were overcome with deep joy. We welcomed little Charlotte Grace and in the following weeks I put together a video celebrating her arrival. It begins with the following scripture.

"The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you 

by his love; He will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

The song that was dear to my heart in that season was called Singing Over Me by Kari Jobe. The words still get me...

When I waited so long, when my tears were my song
With my hope nearly gone You held me God
To believe in the face of the dry, weary place
When You felt far away You held me God

Your songs have never stopped
You've been singing, always singing over me
Your words are still enough
And You're singing, always singing over me

His songs of rejoicing have never stopped & sometimes he needs to sing rather loudly! He is with us, mighty to save, quieting our hearts by His love, rejoicing over us with gladness and for that I am so thankful. Being mama to these five is an honor and a delight. It's funny that I thought those dry, weary days were only those leading up to becoming a mother. There are STILL dry & weary days, moments that feel hopeless, tears...lots of tears & not feeling his nearness. Yet, he never changes & in his mercy, delivers me (time & time again) out of those dry, weary places. I still sit in amazement sometimes staring at all five of them dancing in my kitchen or even when I am doing just two days worth of laundry & think "wow, we had no idea what was coming." What a joy it is to be their mother.