A Beautiful Day in God's Creation

God provided a perfect day for snowshoeing with friends.  The sun was shining, the temperature was tolerable and the friends were the best! We did miss our friend Angie and I am sure she missed being in the white stuff.  I needed some assistance getting the strap on the back of my snowshoe.  Bending after not bending for six months tends to tighten up the back muscles.  Thank you friends. 

And here we go up the 1.5 mile gradual climb to the cabin! The first quarter mile is downhill and then the gradual uphill starts.  

Good friends are a gift from God!

So is sunshine on a winter's day! 

There were lots of opportunities for great pictures! 

Geez! Are we there yet?  The goal is to make it to the one room cabin.  It is stocked with wood for the wood stove. Maybe there would be a fire going when we got there.  We press on!

We made it.  I did better this time.  I am getting stronger day by day. 

Inside we go!  This means the snowshoes come off and I have to get them on again.  There was no fire going but it was a nice break.  As we were getting ready to leave a man arrived with wood in hand to start a fire in the wood stove. 

 Highlight for me! I got my snowshoes on with no assistance.  Let the healing continue. 

Now the gradual downhill starts!  So much easier. Until the end of course and the uphill starts again. 

Remember the downhill I mentioned in the beginning.  Well, after all the glorious downhill the last part of the journey back to the car is uphill.  It seems way longer than it really is!  

I see the gate.  We are almost done!

We did it!  A beautiful day with the precious gift of good friends!  Until next time!!

 

Bear Lake Adventure!

A perfect day for a walk around Bear Lake.  Talena, Angie, Laurie and I met at the lake around 10 AM.  The sun was shining and there was a chill in the air.  It was a beautiful fall day, although it felt more like winter.  Off we go!   

Lots of joy here.  I am thankful that I get to hang out with these ladies.  

Taking gloves off to take pictures wasn't the best idea in the beginning but I did it anyway.  I couldn't resist. The scenery was just too special.  God's creation at its finest.  

I just pointed the camera on my phone toward the sun and took the picture.  I really didn't know how it would turn out.  Love the colors on the clouds.

A sun blob!!!  Reflection pictures are the best.  The sun is reflected on the frozen lake. Glorious!

How do I get my phone camera off of live?  I tried to help but it didn't work.  I know how to do it on my phone.  It was a good effort. 

A pause in the action for a photo.  

This is us trying to figure out how to get all 4 of us in a selfie.  

Better! Laurie had a brilliant idea.  Put the camera in position and then get our faces in the camera.  

Good idea!  

Along the way we threw rocks on the lake to get an idea of how frozen the lake was.  Could we crack the ice? We couldn't crack it with the small rocks we were using.  And up went Laurie, on a mission to get a bigger rock. 

Up, up and away! 

You know that feeling when your children do something dangerous and your heart jumps up out of your chest.  Well, I experienced that feeling at this moment. I turned around after taking a picture of Laurie and there is Talena testing out the depth of the ice.  Will it crack if I set on it?

Of course I recovered enough to snap a couple of pictures. I am really glad I didn't get a picture of her cracking the ice.  

Laurie rolled the rock down the hill. 

The rock!

I really thought I was brilliant! I captured Angie throwing the rock into the lake and the rock cracking a hole in the lake and it sinking below the ice.  Not so!  This is all I got.  I have no idea what I did.  Click to see a one second video of a rock flying.

I did get a picture of the hole and the air under the ice.  Talena was hoping to see a penguin come up out of the hole.  That didn't happen! I like the colors of the frozen lake.  You don't really see those colors just looking at the lake.  They show up in the picture. 

There was some talk about this being a man-made lake as we walked around the lake.  Nope, it was made by bears! That's why it is called Bear Lake.  Perfectly logical.   I will end right there except to say the fellowship is a blessing from God and we had that today.