over the mountains and through the woods

 

Last weekend my hubby and my out of town guest and her hubby all abandoned me for the weekend, so I took the kiddos over the river and through the woods to Mom’s house.  We had a lovely time.  The first night, Mom had to share her newfound freedom with me.  Yep, Dad has officially given Mom permission to take the Jeep out…

We visited the site of a forest fire a few years ago…

My Creator designed a beautiful and resilient world for us to live in.  So amazing how fast the vegetation comes back and how some trees and so many animals can survive catastrophe.

Being in civilization and looking out at mountains is pretty, but being in the mountains, looking out at more mountains is another story.  The wilderness just goes on and on.  Humbling.

The first night the herd of elk we were looking for skunked us, and we only saw some deer…

Then we found the herd the second day…

They are very elegant and graceful.  The herd is all girls, called “cows”.  The bulls are not hanging out with the women folk this time of year – they only come around when they want something, if you know what I mean.

On the sunset ride back to the house our friend and neighbor showed us some crazy weeds and I had to pick some…

Those are not regular old dandelions, they are called Salsify, and are like giant versions of the dandelion…

I tried to get an artsy shot of Mark blowing the seeds away, but no such luck.  For one, he is a boy. 

For two, they were kinda tough to get off the stem…

It was so windy it was impossible to catch the little seeds drifting off, because they were immediately swept away.  My little subject got an “A” for effort though! 

Mark said they looked like “little parachuter guys”.  Very true.

A fun and pretty trip.

 

PS - Have you heard about the Pinterest Challenge!?  I will be posting my Pinterest-inspired project here tomorrow morning!  Yay!