The Perfect Birthday… In The Mountains!

So…. what did I do for my 42nd birthday? I blew off work and took my family and went and did my favorite thing… I went hiking!

I recently got a great new hiking book called Colorado Lake Hikes that I highly recommend. This was the first hike I’ve done in the book. We decided to visit St. Mary’s Lake and “Glacier.”

On the way, we spotted this beautiful water fall on the side of the road. That’s one of the things I love about living in Colorado – there are gorgeous spots like this all over the place. We can just pull over and Luke can get to play in Creation just off the side of the road. It was simply beautiful!

Soon we were on our way up the mountain. This was Luke’s second “real” hike. I haven’t had a chance to blog yet about our family vacation in Yosemite yet, where he hiked up to the top of Sentinel Dome! He is very proud of that feat!

He is proving to fit into nature just, well, naturally. I wonder where he gets his love of the outdoors from?

Luke wants to climb on top of every rock we pass… which adds quite of bit of time to the “hiking time estimate” that was in the hiking book!

Can you find mommy and Luke in this picture? By the way, every picture in this post can be clicked on to view larger in a new window!

We often call Luke “our little poser.” He climbs up on stuff and says, “Take my picture here, Daddy!” Hope he doesn’t outgrow that too quickly!

Spotted something beautiful through the trees!

It was an all uphill hike, but Luke held up pretty well for the most part…

Spotting WILD LIFE is always a highlight. We thought we heard a bear, but Luke claimed that was just Dad making toots! We’ll never know for sure.

But we did see lots of Chipmunks!

Finally, we reached the lake and glacier… which technically isn’t a glacier, but a “permanent snow pack.” There were a lot of “cool dudes” with snow boards hiking up there to surf down it! Crazy, we thought!

Just beyond those rocks, was the lake! And it was BEAUTIFUL!

But Luke wasn’t impressed. He was more interested in throwing rocks in the water:

and seeing how BIG of a splash he could make:

But at least the backdrop was nice:

467 splashes later I was able to get him to walk along the shore to where we settled down for some Birthday Cheesecake to celebrate 42 years of life!

THEN IT HAPPENED! A huge gust of wind came along and BLEW our stuff! My hands were full and I couldn’t stop the plastic container and yelled to Sara and Luke to grab the cheesecake dish but it was too late!

It blew “out to sea” as Luke said, and was gone!

It wasn’t just the potential $500 fine I was worried about, I love my state and the outdoors, I didn’t like the idea of leaving with this huge plastic “boat” (as Luke called it) floating out to the middle of the lake!

We kept an eye on it, and about a half hour later, the wind changed and it actually drifted back about 500 feet away and I was able to retrieve it! Luke thought it was the funniest part of the day and keeps telling people all about it!

Here we are! Luke didn’t want to leave his splash making for a picture, so we got creative with this picture… turned out even better we think!

I love the outdoors. It refreshes me. It refills me. It rejuvenates me. It recreates me. It refocuses me. It renews me.

People ask me why I moved to Colorado. I want to show them pictures like the one above and just say, “This is why.” Why would you want to live anywhere else, if you have a choice. I know I am blessed to have a choice. For now, God allows me to be here. So I am breathing deeply and filling my lungs with Colorado Air.

Next, we headed into Idaho Springs, and went BeauJo’s Pizza – a famous mountain town pizzaria joint here in Colorado, where I order Beaughetti! Spaghetti in a garlic bread pizza crust! Yum! Yum!

So to the 164 Facebook greeters, (new record this year!) and all those who wished me a happy birthday via Twitter and in the Kidology Forum too – THANKS!

I had a great birthday, and YOU were a part of making my day special!

But most of all, it was special, because I spent it with my two favorite people doing my favorite thing…

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One Comment:

  1. Love reading the comments you make concerning your wife and son. The love that comes through is incredible. Glad you had a terrific birthday and was able to spend it the way you did.

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