Continuing to figure out the internet

Come see how I've been conquering the interweb over at my new site

www.sandalsinthesnow.com

Captain America

Come to my new wordpress site to see my post on Captain America.

www.sandalsinthesnow.com

Travel Blog

If you hadn't heard, I've moved to WordPress. Come see me at www.sandalsinthesnow.com. I just made a new post.

To read about the crazy adventure Jake and I are going to be taking this fall, CLICK HERE!

Slow and steady wins the race

In case you missed it the first time: I've moved over to WordPress. www.sandalsinthesnow.com is my new page.

Well, I'm in the process of moving. It's hard getting everything in order over there.

Please visit me at www.sandalsinthesnow.com and tell me what you think! I also am asking for some feedback over there, if you wouldn't mind.

CLICK HERE!

Lost in (Cyber)Space

So not only am I moving my blog over to wordpress, but I'm desperately trying to learn internet jargon as fast as I can so I can keep up with learning how to move it efficiently and completely.

As I just exclaimed loudly to my mom, who is sitting across the table from me,

Learning the internet is HARD!

So my writing will likely be taking a back seat to learning the internet. I have things I really want to write about, though. For instance, Jake and I just bought a tandem bike. It's super fun and I can't wait to tell you all about it. Also, I have some recipes I'd like to share with you. But, I'm going to a blog conference with mom in three weeks and would like to have the technical side of things dealt with by then. So if you don't see much from me in the next couple weeks you'll know where I am...

I'm just lost in cyberspace.

Moving to WordPress

My mommy made me.

So I'm working on that. It's really confusing and makes my head hurt. I want to quit and I've only been at it for a few hours. I've already called her six or seven times tonight just to have her tell me I'm doing the right thing. Not that she had the guts to do it herself. No, she's making her own daughter walk through the fire before her. Harumph. I see how it is.

But I guess she's sorta right. If I plan on making this (at the very least) an involved hobby, I may as well make this switch while I only have 14 readers. Although, I did have 175 views after I finished our courtship story. I guess I'll be posting more about that. So, all 175 of you, can you please follow me over to WordPress? Or at least can the 14 of you come looking for me if you don't see anything from me in for a while?

Feel free to check it out. It's totally still a work in progress, so be patient with me. Looks like all my posts and comments moved over there, but it's much more complicated to play with Widgets and make the page look how I want. Also, while my links are intact, they all bring you back to blogger. Not that I'm against that, but I guess the point of moving to WordPress is to be self contained over there. So I have to figure out if there is an easier way to fix them that doesn't involved updating each link individually. I am not hopeful of an easy fix.


sandalsinthesnow.com

Look Mom, I have a domain name!

Label me

I need a label. One that isn't limiting. One that can change with me over the years. If I'm going to keep at this blog thing for a while then I don't want to put myself in a corner with the identity I choose.

I thought about Young Wife, but I won't always be a young wife. I thought about something to do with infertility, but I won't always be childless. I like dogs, but I don't want to only write about my dogs. They aren't always that interesting anyways. I thought "City Girl in a Small Town" but I may not always live in a small town. Also I really don't write that much about living in a small town. Can you think of something else that you think fits me or my blog better? I'm looking for real feedback here.

Right now I'm leaning towards 

My Mother's Daughter

What do you think? I like it because, well, I am her daughter in many more ways than people may even realize. Also, I will ALWAYS be her daughter. And most of my readership are her fans anyways. Instant readers right there. ;)

Mom and I are going to a blog conference in August and I'd like to be somewhat set up by the time we go. I'm actually getting pretty excited about it. I had wanted to write or do some sort of journalism in high school and college and maybe this is the way I can do that.

Thanks in advance!

Things you just shouldn't say

"When are you two having kids?"

Just don't ask. That's all I'm saying. Especially if you know that they're trying. Especially if you know they're trying to avoid. Especially if you don't know either way, because frankly it's none of your bleepin' business.

Just don't ask.

Not only will you be over stepping the bounds of polite conversation, but at the very least you'll be annoying.

It could be worse. You could really hurt someone. You likely won't know that you're causing pain, but it's true. An excruciating pain caused by a heart silently breaking into a million pieces.

Don't ask unless you have permission to ask. If you don't know what having permission is, then you don't have it.

And on more personal note:
When someone is talking about buying a puppy, don't you dare say "Just have a baby," when you know damn well that the puppy would actually just be a substitute for the baby they so desperately want. Especially if you are saying this while holding your one year old child that you had on accident while using birth control. If you had a baby on accident and have never struggled with infertility you don't get to suggest anything.

You can carry me in your purse wherever you go

We can play all day

Luckily this one keeps pretty good, if somewhat lazy company.

Can someone pass the brownies?

The Suitor Asks A Question

If this is your first time here please begin the story here with part one
part two
part three

I loved every minute of Europe. Well, except for the ones that I spent crying on the phone with my mom in the hotel stairway in Amsterdam. Those were not very good minutes. I missed home, and almost everyone else in the group wanted to spend the whole time getting stoned and wandering through the red light district. I didn't enjoy those minutes days at all.

But this is not a time for a sob story. This is a time for a love story.

I had a feeling while I was in Europe that Jake would propose within two weeks of my return. I honestly thought he would do it sooner, but I was trying to be at least a little realistic.

My plane landed in San Francisco on August 3rd, 2007 at 12:15am. While flying from D.C. to S.F. my friend Nat and I were giggling about how romantic it would be if Jake were at the airport waiting for me and proposed on the spot. She had her camera ready when we landed...just in case. But it was just my parents. Not that I wasn't happy to see them. I had missed them too. I just...well, wanted to see the man I was in love with. I was excited to get to be home for more than four days with him.

We, the parents and I, grabbed a bite to eat at IHOP and then headed home. Five hours later we were there. During the drive I blabbed about my trip for a while, and dozed off for a bit as well. I never figured out how long my flight actually was with time zone changes and everything, but I think I had been up for 40-45 hours by the time we got back home. We, my roommates in Europe, didn't exactly spend our last night in Spain sleeping.

When we arrived home Jake was there waiting. He had spent the night with my brother so he could see me as soon as possible. I was SOOOO happy to see him and ran immediately into his arms. In my mind it was very much like this:

or this

or even this

In any case, I was very happy to be home. Once I was able to pry myself away, I took a shower, changed clothes and decided that it would be best if I just stayed up all day and got used to the time zone right away. Jake, not wanting to leave me, offered to take me to town for some breakfast. On our way there we were talking about how great it was that I was home and how happy we were to finally be together. He said something to the effect of "The hard part is over, you're home now," to which I jokingly replied, "Well, we don't really know. We haven't even been in the same country for more than three weeks before." He asked if I’d like to go to dinner that night. I told him that I thought I would be too tired, but we could the next night.

Suddenly, instead of breakfast, which I was beginning to really want, Jake said we needed to make a detour to his parents’ house to let the dogs out because they were out of town. But, considering I was sleep deprived and ecstatic just to be with him, I didn't think anything of his sudden change in direction. I patiently sat in the truck while he went inside to deal with the dogs. I wondered what he was doing in there because I could see him pacing back and forth through the whole house. But I was starting to dose off, I didn't wonder  too hard about it.

He finally came out of the house and opened my door. I swung my legs out so I was facing out of the truck. He looked at me for a long time and then he kissed me gently and hugged me hard. I remember that I could feel his heart pounding, quite literally punching me in the chest. His arms were shaking very badly. I thought to myself "Man, we need to get breakfast right away or he's going to faint," and then I heard something. He was fumbling behind my back, but why? I heard the glove box open. Hmm, what could he be looking for in there? And then…

The click. The click I somehow knew by heart. The click of a jewelry box opening. Specifically, a ring box. Then it all fell into place. I suddenly understood. Trembling, Jake leaned back and brought the velvety teal box into view.

"Rachel, will you marry me?"

Now, if Jake was telling this story, he would say that I paused here for a very long time. Long enough for him to become nervous. But the truth is I was simply stunned into silence. It wasn't unexpected. I knew he would propose. I just was thinking it would be within two weeks, not two hours. It quickly made sense why he’d been acting just a little weird all morning. But the ring! It was exactly what I had always wanted, and I didn't remember ever telling him that. Princess cut, high setting, white gold. And it was way bigger than I even imagined I would have. In my head I was saying "YES! YES! YES!" but apparently my mouth was not doing the same.

I looked up at him and knew by the look of panic in his eyes that I had yet to answer aloud. I remember thinking very distinctly, Silly man, of course I’m going to say yes. "YES!" and I kissed him again. He let out the breath he had been holding for who knows how long. He slid the ring on my finger and it was just a little too big. Luckily there was a jeweler in town. In the car we went. I practically ran into the store wanting to showcase my new fiancé and my new ring. The jeweler was somehow able to determine that I had just received it, perhaps because neither of us could stop smiling or perhaps because our hands were grasped so tight they were white, and told us he'd have it done for us by the afternoon.

Then we had to wait. Well, we didn't have to, but I wanted to tell our parents first. His mom was out of town and doesn't answer the phone while she's driving, and my parents were asleep, having just completed a marathon drive to and from San Francisco in one night. Ugh. So we waited, and waited, and waited. We kept bumping into people we knew in town and it was very hard not to just blab it to everyone, but somehow we made it.

Finally around two my mom woke up. “How was your day, guys?”

“Just fine. We got some breakfast, let (in-laws’) dogs out for a bit, got engaged, went to the park, grabbed some lunch…”

“Oh that’s nice.” Then we saw the realization of what we had said set in. “Wait, what?”

My parents knew we would be engaged that day. They were in on the plan. The plan, I learned, had been coming together for some time. Jake and Brother had spent the day before I got home making a banana cream pie, my favorite. The plan was that Jake would take me to dinner at the romantic restaurant in town. The restaurant my brother happened to work in as a dish washer. The plan was that after dinner we would order dessert to go, and Brother would pack up our pie with the ring in it. The plan was that we would go to a romantic lake nearby, one at which we had had many dates. I would open the pie box, find the ring, he would get down on one knee, I would squeal with delight, say yes as the sun set over the lake, and we’d live happily ever after.

But I ruined the plan.

I made a stupid joke. Apparently something is lost in translation when I’m jet lagged and haven’t slept in two days and it sounded like I said "Well, we'll see." When I said I was too tired to go to dinner Jake became extra worried about what I had said and didn’t want to wait until the next night to propose. He wanted to make sure we were on the same page as soon as possible. So he proposed right away, standing in his parents’ driveway at 8am.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And we did live happily ever after

The Suitor Makes A Long Distance Call

New to the story? Catch up with Part One and Part Two

Sure enough, Jake passed "the test" and a couple days later, May 1st to be exact, he called me first thing in the morning and asked me out. We went on our first real date that night and he asked me to be his girlfriend.

Our first public outing as a couple: our friend's wedding

As I said, I was going to be leaving the country for about 2.5 months. May 18^th I was going to leave America to spend six weeks in Mexico studying Spanish. I would come home for barely four days and then jet off to Europe for a month long tour. 8 countries, 15 cities, 30 days. Pretty jam packed. This summer had been planned for months and months, long before Jake was ever part of the picture and Mom wouldn’t let me back out. I’m glad she didn’t, in retrospect, but it was sure hard leaving Jake at the airport that morning.

Our relationship progressed very quickly. We spent almost every waking moment together. Not only were we wanting to spend time together but we were trying to learn everything there was to learn about each other before we would be forced into a 6 week, 2000 mile separation. I say this with complete earnest: thank God for the invention of the telephone, the instant message, email, and Skype. We used all of them to stay in contact while I was in Mexico. I was living with my uncle while I was going to school there and Jake bought a long distance calling card. Uncle let me use his phone until the wee hours of the morning as long as Jake called. And he did call. Every night.

Happy to be talking to my man

 He also had written me letters and snuck them in my suitcase before I left. One letter for every day I would be gone. He told me that he had started writing them even before he knew that I liked him. He said “I decided that if I wasn’t dating you by the time you left for Mexico I wanted to make sure you had something to remind you of me while you were gone. I figured if we were dating by the time you left for Mexico, well, then you’d have something from me to look forward to every morning.” How sweet is that?! If I wasn’t already completely smitten with him by then that might have been the push I needed. I intended to open ONLY one letter a day. My resolve lasted about two days and then I opened them all and devoured every word. They were so much fun to read. They were simple notes reminding me that he missed me. Some had funny stories, some talked about things he aspired to. Each letter had a bit of scripture to meditate on that day. Some had coupons that I could redeem upon my return to the states – foot rubs, date night ideas, kisses in the rain, romantic stuff like that. It was really hard not to just get on a plane and head back home.

But we made it through. It was during this time in Mexico that I realized that not only did I truly love Jake, but I really wanted to marry him. And soon. I *cough* started looking at wedding dresses and day dreaming about our life together. Did you know that you can customize your own wedding party on the David’s Bridal website? Pick the colors, the tuxes, the dresses, number in the wedding party, even the location back drop. Well, at least you could in the summer of 2007.

Finally June 30^th came and I was on a plane headed home. It's not that I didn't enjoy my time in Mexico and learn a lot, but I really missed Jake and my family and was ready to come home. Also, before we started dating we agreed that we wouldn't kiss before I left for Mexico. He'd never kissed a girl before (or a guy, just for the record) and I wasn't sure how the long distance thing would work out. I didn't want him to regret using his first kiss on someone he dated for three weeks. So, my coming home also meant that we were finally gonna smooch. I'm not gonna lie...we were pretty excited. 

My parents surprised me by letting Jake pick me up at the airport. But, for some reason that I don't remember, we decided to wait for "the kiss" until the next day. Jet lag maybe? It seems silly now, but I guess we just wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. The airline lost my luggage somewhere in Dallas, but it didn't matter because I was finally in his strong arms again. 

The next day he took me to a very romantic restaurant in a very romantic town and we went for a very romantic walk through a very romantic park. If you're ever in Southern Oregon, shoot me an email and I'll tell you all about it. Amazing. We had a very romantic first kiss too. Just like the movies. He was shaking so badly I was a little concerned that the wooden bridge we were standing on might splinter apart, and then he swooped in so fast that he missed and kissed my chin. But it didn't matter. He was so adorable I let him have a second try. All I'll say is: he's a natural.

I got good at multitasking in Europe

On July 4th, 2007 my parents and Jake and I packed up in the car and drove to San Francisco so I could get on another plane on the 5th and go to Europe. I wanted very badly to see Europe, but this time leaving was so much harder. Jake had made it abundantly clear that he wanted to marry me too and I thought he might propose on Pier 39 and I was quickly talking myself out of going at all. But, Mom had bought me a cell phone that would work across the pond and Jake had re-uped his long distance calling card. I wouldn't have as much access to a computer as I had in Mexico but we could still talk. The 8 hour time difference was a bit of an issue, but Jake was awesome and took the crappy hours to talk. All in all I'm really glad I went, and hope to be able to go back with Jake some day. Maybe I'll write another post someday about my adventures in Europe. I truly had an amazing time, despite pining away for my true love waiting for me in California. 

Little did I know, while I was flying from San Francisco International Airport to Heathrow, Jake was sitting nervously in the car with my parents for the 6 hour car ride home working up the nerve to ask them permission to marry me.While I was out gallivanting through various European countries, Jake was carefully buying an engagement ring out of town, trying to avoid the small town gossip. Of course, my brother blabbed it, but it didn't matter anyways. I was a whole ocean away. Who was going to spoil it for me? Certainly not my mom, who, when I told her that I was certain Jake would propose within two weeks of my return denied knowing anything about anything. Little sneak. ;)

Did I say yes? Click here to see.

The Suitor Finds A Way

See the beginning of the story HERE

Jake is five years older than me. It isn’t an issue for us now. It was when we wanted to start dating, though. Not an issue for us, per se, but an issue for people around us. I was 18, but technically still a high schooler. Jake, since moving back home after college, was very involved in student ministry at church. The rule was that students and staff couldn’t date. Hmmm...

Probably pondering his future with me

That didn't deter him too much. He planned a bbq for friends at the lake. He offered to come check my car while I was at work. I planned a movie night at my house. I also started going to the college Bible study he had been going to for years. Someone very wise once told me "Don't chase guys...but don't be afraid to get in their way." Yes, I started going to this particular Bible study because Jake was there. And I'm not ashamed to say so.

 So now it's the middle of April. One Sunday after church I mentioned to Jake in passing that I was going to take Jackie to the lake. It was a gorgeous day and she really needed a bath.

He showed up. We sat on the shore and talked all afternoon. We talked about everything and nothing. That night we continued the conversation at the college Bible study I was attending because he was there. Late that night on the drive home I noticed my gas light was on and needed to get gas before I went home. He followed me to the gas station and pumped my gas for me. As I drove away from the gas station, watching him watch me drive away in my rearview mirror, I had a revelation: I liked him. I went home and cried at my mom. This wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to fall for Jake. I was actually a little pissed about it.

He called me the next day. Apparently we were both thinking the same thing: enough tip toeing...we needed to talk about this. He called to ask if I would be interested in going to get dessert with him. He wanted to talk with me about "some stuff." Before I even had a chance to answer he asked me what my dad's cell number was because he wanted to ask him if it was ok if we went out. Sweet right? My dad must have said yes because I met Jake at the diner that night for milkshakes.

I drank mine in about a minute.

He didn't take a single sip of his.

Finally we got around to talking. Jake, with much trepidation, told me that he liked me and that he wanted to court me. He was completely honest and told me that he was looking for a woman who was marriage material. He explained that he didn't want to just date me...he was very interested in finding out if I was the woman who would become his wife.

Luckily for him I liked him too and wasn't interested in just dating either. We talked about the fact that I was still in high school. (Except that I really wasn’t. I’d finished all my high school requirements. I just was waiting for the end of the school year to get my diploma.) Jake had made an actual verbal promise to the youth pastor that he wouldn’t date a student. I guess that they had noticed out Facebook conversations as well. No worries though, he was more than willing to wait until I was officially graduated to be my boyfriend. We would continue to hang out in groups until then. Great, that was out of the way. But there still was one slight downside to that plan. I was supposed to graduate on May 15^th. Then, on May 18^th I was leaving the country for two and a half months. But Jake insisted that we would be able to work with the long distance thing.

Blissfully unaware that my life was going to change forever

While we were sitting in the diner, my mom happened to be pulling some strings behind the scenes and long story short, she ended up calling me and telling me that I actually would graduate May 1st. That was *counting fingers* only a week away! That also meant that we'd get to actually go on a date or two before I was out of the country for what would feel like forever.

As soon as Jake got to his car after dessert he called my dad again and set up “The Meeting.” You Sonlight laides likely remember that dinner. My dad asked Jake every question under the sun. Finances, faith, past relationships, education, plans for the future, plans for me, ideals…I think the only thing they didn’t talk about was politics, believe it or not. The two days prior to their evening Dad spent lots of time interviewing people he trusted who knew Jake. Luckily Jake had been working in youth ministry for so long that the youth pastors at both churches knew him well, as did their wives, as well as the senior pastors. Even before the dinner Dad knew that Jake was a pretty great guy.

So did Jake past the test and make it through the parental interrogation?

Another Suitor For The Princess

ETA: So after posting this I was looking through some old posts and saw that I've already posted this story! Last night I was looking through my old drafts to find inspiration and saw this gem, and thought I hadn't posted it. Well, I was wrong, but since it's my blog, I'm going to finish the series because I like it better than the last draft I did. So there.


Alright everybody. I've talked about some of the non-prince blokes...it's time for Jake to take the stage. The timeline is a little jumpy, but stay with me. It will be worth it.

GQ Magazine called...

Jake and I met for the first time when I was 16. Like I've said before, my parents moved our family to a little town in Northern California at the end of 2004. It was fairly traumatic, but shortly after moving I started making friends and feeling more comfortable. I got involved with a church very quickly, as did my parents. So involved, in fact, that my parents hosted the staff meeting for 2005's youth summer camp at their house early that spring. That was the first time I laid eyes on Jake. I thought he was cute, but quickly forgot about him. After all, he was obviously too old for me, considering he was at the staff meeting.

We ran into each other at youth camps over the next two years. He was going to college out of the area and was only home for during the summer and Christmas break. Coincidentally those were the times that youth camps were scheduled. At one winter camp I did develop a wee bit of a crush on him. However, very quickly after camp I moved on. He was not an option anyways, since he was five years older. At 16 that is a huge difference. At the following summer camp I found myself flirting with Jake again. Now that I had actually talked with him for some time, I thought he was a very nice guy. One who obviously loved the Lord. One who had some direction in life. One who was smart and funny. One who had gotten cuter since the last time I'd seen him. But, that summer I happened to be engrossed in my drama with The Frog, and when camp was over I forgot about Jake once again.

Fast forward to February, 2007. I was at a girls retreat. It was at this retreat that I really faced that fact that I had a bad habit of throwing my heart at guys who weren’t really worth my time. That is what I had done with The Crush. It was what I had done with The Frog. I had trusted my value, my self-esteem, and my whole life to these guys without even a shady promise of anything in return. I let myself become completely infatuated with these boys waaaaaaay to early and always ended up getting really hurt. I made a commitment to God that weekend that I would stop doing that. I would stop trusting random guys with my heart so quickly. Maybe I should have at least one conversation with them first. Just a thought.

Rewind real quick to a month before. I had started going to a different church than the one my family had been attending. I had been invited by a friend and really liked it. It just so happened that Jake's family went to this church. It just so happened that he had been coming home from college on the weekends and was going to that church. It just so happened that the friend who had invited me was also friends with Jake. It just so happened that we ended up sitting next to each other at church on more than one occasion. The week before this weekend in February we had been having a discussion about ways to study the Bible.

Ok, back to February. So I made this commitment to guarding my heart. And I was serious about it. Never again would I assume a guy was interested in me and promptly give away my heart. I was going to be responsible.

The very next day at church I was sitting next to Jake and he handed me a piece of paper. On it was Psalm 19 typed out and covered in hand written notes. “It’s an example of how to study a chapter,” he told me. Anyone else would have thought "That's nice of him." My mind immediately thought "Oh he likes me, look at all this effort. WAIT! Nope, I'm not going there." I thanked him for the paper and promptly tried to forget it ever happened. Do you see a pattern yet? Jake was the guy I kept trying to forget about. He was too good for me. I was supposed to end up with a troubled guy. I just knew it. Jake was too...too...nice.

How was I going to NOT fall for him?

For the next few weeks at church it seemed like he was sitting next to me on purpose. If we weren't sitting next to each other, he'd pass me a note, just to say hello. It was becoming harder and harder not to assume he liked me. And he was handsome. And he was nice to me. And, and, and… He started coming to lunch after church with my group of friends. By the end of March he started coming into my work. I could tell he didn't drink coffee regularly, but he was coming in anyways. We started emailing back and forth about various things. God, movies, music, work, life, even the future. He was very sly, working in the big questions with the less important ones. "What's your favorite movie? I like (blahblahblah). Also, where do you see yourself working in ministry in the future?" "Do you like to hike? How big of a family do you see yourself with?" Sneaky, right? Apparently, because I totally didn't catch on. I was trying so hard to ignore any hints that I missed them completely.

Despite my determination to stay neutral, I WAS beginning to like him. He was fun. He was funny. He and I had a lot of the same interests. I started trying to make ways for us to hang out. My car was making a funny noise, so I called him. He knew a lot about cars, so I thought he might be able to help. *innocent smile* We both had dogs, so maybe we could take them to the lake together. *innocent smile* 

He was on to me, and there was a big problem: I was still technically in high school and he was working with youth ministry at our church. That was a big no-no.

Stay tuned to see what happens next. I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. ;)

PART TWO

Happy Fourth!

We had a fabulous three day weekend. It was closer to a four day weekend, because aside from a few phone calls that Jake had to make we pretty much took Friday off too. Yay for owning our own business. :)

Our town has a HUGE 4th of July celebration. There is a 5 mile race for the crazy people, a 2 mile walk lined with vendors and musicians, fair food (I love me some freshly deep fried corn dogs), more street vendors, entertainers, lots of live music, raffles, and everyone you ever knew comes back to town and you bump into them constantly. And then there is a parade. Local law enforcement and firetrucks included. Fun for all.

Then, usually, you go to a BBQ somewhere and head up to the golf resort (along with everyone you ever knew) to watch the fireworks. There's lots more music and food, but the fireworks are pitifully small from that distance.

This year Jake and I decided to do something both of us have always wanted to try, but never have been able to do. We borrowed a boat from a friend and went out on the lake that they shoot the fireworks off at. We packed a picnic dinner, Jake brought a fishing pole and I brought a book, and after a BBQ with the in-laws we headed down the lake. It was so much fun! We floated for a few hours, munching on crackers and cheese and enjoyed the warm night. After dark the fireworks were right on top of us. Literally. We accidentally drifted into the "boat-free" space near the firework deck and a kindly ol' sheriff came and asked us to back up. Oops. But I think we'll be doing this every year.

Yay SUN!

Our mountain view

I could get used to this

See where they're being shot off from?

The lake is in a bit of a canyon, so no only did we hear and feel the boom from the firework going off, but then it would echo off the mountains surrounding us. It was like watching fireworks in a trashcan. So cool! Also, the camera couldn't pick this up, but you actually could see a faint outline of the mountain behind the fireworks. So imagine the mountain view just behind these fireworks. It was spectacular.

Happy Fourth!

And I can't leave a 4th of July post without giving a special thanks to the men and women who have fought for our freedom. I truly appreciate it and can't even begin to comprehend the sacrifices that have been made on my behalf. A marine friend of mine ran the 5 mile race in some of his gear and carrying the flag, reminding everyone that The Fourth means so much more than BBQs and boats. Thank you.