Last weekend, we packed up the car and took off to the mountains to camp with the our neighbors and their family. As long as I’ve lived in Colorado, I’ve never ventured above Basalt so it was a great adventure. We camped above Ruedi Reservoir which feeds into the lower Frying Pan River (can I just say that I think fly fishermen are SO hot?). Gosh was it beautiful up there.

This little guy didn’t let his mom sleep, so after he caught up on his sleep, she got to take a long nap while we played with him in the screen tent.

Because there is a strict fire ban in Colorado, we had to roast our marshmallows over the gas grill… whatever gets the job done.

We took the kids to the reservoir and threw them in the Ducky so they could figure out how to paddle. They did great and there was only one small injury involving a kid getting hit in the head with a paddle.

These are my favorite windows, by far!

I started with some sketchy calligraphy which I took to Copy Copy to be blown up. We had to cut out each word and blow it up 588%, which took about 2 hours in total. Then I cut out each word again, taped them inside the windows and painted over them with an oil based paint pen. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out!!

One of the things the kids requested to do this summer was float on Caleb and Rickelle’s raft. C & R had been wanting to see how Gunnison would do on the raft so we planned a little town float experiment with all the kiddos.

It went amazing! Gunnison had so much fun throwing rocks into the river and he even took a nap! I can’t believe the kid will be 1 year old in 1 month!

My kids did great too, jumping in and out of the river, learning to row and eating tons and tons of snacks. We definitely want to do another kid float before the river dries up too much (rain, please come!).

We had intended to camp for several nights during the 4th of July with our friends Brooke and Brian and their kids, but things didn’t quite work out for a trip up to the mountains so we opted for a day trip up to the Grand Mesa instead.

We started with a pancake breakfast at the fire station in Collbran (I tell you, it’s amazing the different culture that exists just 45 minutes from Grand Junction!).

Followed by the town parade.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing in a creek near Atkinson Lake. It was SO beautiful. The upside was the rain and the 50 degree temperatures, which were a welcome relief after weeks of 100 degree, dry heat at home.

I just LOVE living in Colorado. This is an hour drive from my house.

We ended the evening with an impromptu party at Amy’s house with about 25 people. None of us really had plans for the 4th because the fireworks were cancelled. It was such an amazing time, partying with people I love, my community. Plus there were beergaritas!

Thai iced tea w/ the kids in the background.

My kind of fortune.

I searched the town high and low to find giant pixie sticks. They make perfect straws for Beergaritas!!

Sometimes you know your friends love you when they let you drink out of their very special Thor cup.

No comment.

Lincoln Park at Magic Hour

Sometimes you have to google things…

Lake Day! Photo courtesy Lisa.

Rickelle’s cat walked by a candle and caught his tail on fire. Luckily it just singed his hair and he didn’t get hurt.

Colorad wild fire!

Toth Ranch. I spent 4 days with the girls up here at a retreat and it was SO, SO AMAZING. Exactly what we all needed and more.

Carrie saved this baby bird from the cat and was nursing it back to health. Then the cat got it anyway and everyone was mad.

I’m not sure how to write all that is swirling around in my heart. It’s been so hard to contain what’s going on inside of me, to define and explain it. All I can say is that I continue to find myself over and over again becoming so overwhelmed with the thankfulness I feel about where I am. The journey God has taken me on is so amazing and the way he has orchestrated even the small details of the lessons I’m learning, the changes in me, just delights me in ways unexplainable.

I think about my life now compared to years 18-28 and I am struck with the contrast. It was like I lived those ten years asleep, not enjoying this incredible gift of LIFE. I can’t explain just how ALIVE I feel now, how awake I am compared to then, like sleeping beauty finally kissed by her true love. It’s like life sprang new in me and it’s bubbling out, uncontainable, onto the floor, into the cracks, dripping into the basement, filling up every room to the ceiling, pouring out the windows into the street. I feel like everywhere I go it pours out of me in ways I can’t help… it just bubbles and flows out, on and on. I feel like I’m about to burst with the LIFE flowing in me and it just amazes me.

I think that in losing my marriage, and in that, getting torn down to the very core of myself, God has slowly whispered to me about who I am and who I’m not. It’s so freeing to embrace yourself, your true self. It’s so amazing to throw away the untruths you’ve believed about yourself, pulling the millstone of all of those lies from your neck and tossing them into the depths of the sea. It’s so freeing to just LIVE in who you are, not apologizing for your self but embracing it. I am starting to see that all the tools that I need to accomplish the jobs set before me are hidden in my true identity. And that identity is so GOOD and so special.

Yesterday, independence day, I kept thinking about my own personal independence. This gift I’ve been given has not been lost on me. I was saved from the depths of fear and loss and abandonment and disgrace…from heart-wrenching pain that went on and on and on. I am just SO, SO, SO saved. It is so good. Life is so good. I’m just reveling in the freedom. And this is just the beginning…