There is Beauty All Around

Two weekends ago we decided to go enjoy the beauty of the mountains.

I didn't have to work on Friday and my husband didn't either (one benefit of furloughs).

We left Friday morning and returned Saturday evening, a quick trip, but we enjoyed it,

and it was a nice and much needed time away.

Here we are at the beginning...

 Well, technically this is the beginning.

 This particular hike was beautiful, as most are, but we saw a bunch of lakes!

The hike started out next to this lake.

The first part of the trail is a bunch of switchbacks straight up, but the reward was this beautiful view!

We decided we should come up sometime and take a sailboat on that lake, although we are going to have to book about two years in advance, seeing as that lake's campground is already completely booked for next year!

 My sweet husband is such a sport and posed for pictures anytime I asked.

 One thing I love about hiking is seeing and enjoying the beauty of Heavenly Father's creations.

I started snapping pictures like crazy, of course the pictures never quite do them justice, but they are still beautiful.

 A little bit before this next picture we had to choose which lakes we wanted to camp by,

we went left and as we were hiking we heard water, which obviously is a good sign since we were hiking to a lake,

so we went to investigate the water a bit more, because we hadn't seen much on our hike (besides the lake at the beginning).

 It turns out it's a natural spring, or the water goes underground for a while, either way it was pretty neat.

 Sweet husband investigating a bit

 Here's a picture of the spring itself.

 These are the other two lakes we could have hiked to.... another day.

 Me with the lakes, please excuse the funky poncho connected  to my backpack, it was starting to rain, so we took them out for easy access.

 This is the lake we camped by.

 When we got to the lake it was raining pretty hard. 

So we set out to find the best camping spot possible.

Then it started hailing,

so we set out to find any camping spot possible.

We set up our tent in record time.

About this time the rain stopped, so we decided to fish for a bit before dinner.

My sweet husband forgot that you aren't supposed to throw your pole into the water, just the line...

It was still raining a bit and apparently the fish in this lake don't like to eat when it is raining, so we didn't catch anything, and decided to make dinner.

 We feasted on two different mountain house packets, they are yummy.

The first could have used a little more seasoning but the second one (the one my sweet husband is showing) was really good.

After that we were pretty beat and decided to read in the tent. We're reading the Work and the Glory series right now. We like to read on car trips, we've read a few other series already, and decided that we should read this one. I've read the entire series before, but my sweet husband had only read a few of them. So we started, we are on the third book of nine right now. They are really good and help us put perspective on our lives and we are learning a lot, but that's a story for another time.

We actually slept in the next morning, so we probably missed the best fishing, but while we were eating breakfast we saw fish jumping like crazy so we fished a bit more.

 The water was SO clear!

We could see the fish swimming near us... unfortunately that didn't help us catch any.

I don't think they liked what we had to offer, we needed some wet flies... next time.

My sweet husband started calling me the fishing assassin because I would wait until I saw a fish jump or saw one swim by and would cast right at it... or next to it.. or where I thought it was swimming next... lol!

 It was SO beautiful!

 Then, sadly, we had to head back home.

 We thought the hike back would be a lot faster than the hike out, it was pretty much the same,

so you can imagine how excited we were to see a glimpse of the lake through the trees!

 And then it got bigger

Lol, and then it disappeared for a while

 But then we made it to the trailhead! YAY!

 So I was being silly and flexed my "muscles" and then I wanted to take a picture of my sweet husband and joked that he should flex, he told me no a couple times and I just laughed and was just going to take his picture, but he ACTUALLY flexed! lol! He said, "the things I let you do to me.." lol! I sure love him!

 It was such a beautiful trip! I love to be in Heavenly Father's creations! And especially love to be in the mountains, I always feel so close to Him there! It was just what we needed after a rough week. I love to spend time with my sweet husband! It was a great weekend!

Day 3: Fishing part 2

Day 3 started out with fishing.

I think my dad was the only one to catch any fish this round.

After a while we all got tired of not catching anything and we were hungry so we went back to camp for breakfast.

After breakfast my dad, my mom, my sisters, and my sweet husband

went on a little hike to the waterfalls near our camp.

The rest of us stayed back and played Phase 10.

When they all got back my sweet husband gave me this little bouquet of flowers!

He's so sweet!

My youngest sister in front, my mom behind her, and my other sister next her

After a while we decided to go fishing again.

On my very first cast I caught a fish,

but the stinking thing broke my line and stole my spinner!

So I counted that one as another half.. :)

A great catch!

The fish isn't so bad either ;)

I love this view!

My cousin watching my sweet husband and my youngest brother fishing

Lol, so this fish has quite the story.

My brother was fishing on the other side of the glacier,

he caught this big fish,

but then realized he didn't have his pliers to get the hook out.

So he trekked around the glacier, over the huge rocks

(with the fish),

and down to us to get some pliers.

By this point the fish is gasping for breath

He got the hook out and dropped the fish in the water.

It sat there for a long time with its belly up.

BUT then about 10-15 minutes later

he swam away!

Lol, I love how the fish looks in the picture all bent funny... makes me laugh every time I see it

The monster,

my third and final catch

Trying yet again to get the fish off..

as you can see his was very wiggly,

and I wasn't successful this time either.. lol

My husband fishing,

but it is also a picture of the glacier.

Remember how I said it would crack,

you can see that part of it has cracked in this picture

and is falling into the lake.

I'm not sure if it was raining in the picture above or not,

but it rained and hailed on us that day.

We were just going to wait out the storm

but then lightning hit and the thunder was SO loud.

We decided we were done for the time being,

so we headed back to camp.

Of course the rain stopped about half way down the hill,

but we went back anyways because rain was still threatening.

After the rain stopped for a while,

the men went fishing again.

The younger boys and the girls stayed at camp.

We played card games and had a great time.

The men did as well!

They all caught the most on that trip!

My sisters,

My sister (the one with her arms up) got a lot of mosquito bites,

she was very faithful at putting the anti-itch stuff on them,

not so faithful with the sunscreen.

Well, it turns out the anti-itch stuff has sunscreen in it

so she had this big circles where she wasn't as sunburned...

it looked pretty funny! Lol!

My mom playing solitaire,

which reminds me of a joke.

Why should you have a deck of cards with you if you get lost?

Because if you start playing solitaire,

it won't be long before someone comes up behind you

and says, "You can put that black nine on the red ten."

Lol, my dear husband told us that joke when my mom was playing.

Red Castle from our campsite

Me and my sister

A pretty view through the trees looking at the lake that we camped by

Our campsite

Sitting around the campfire trying to keep the bugs away

Check out this beast!

My dear husband with his big fish!

So big in fact that it bent his spinner!

Apparently this fish tried to eat my brother's spinner

and since it was the last one

he was determined to get it back!

My brother with his monster

By the end I think the final score was:

Dad-24

My dear husband-14

My younger brother-7 or so

My youngest brother-4 or 5?

Me- 3 and 2 halves

It was some great fishing!

I wish I would have gone the last time,

but there is always next time I guess.