Topography.

I lift my eyes up to the mountains. Where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord. Maker of heaven. Creator of the earth. Psalm 121:1&2

have you ever had this epiphany?

I got up this morning at 4:30 to catch my flight from Montana back to Nebraska. It was cloudy, and I couldn't see the mountains. It was getting a bit lighter as we were about to take off, but it looked like it would be a pretty gloomy day.

As our plane took off, we broke through those clouds and came up on top looking down at perfect carebear clouds. And there, I could see the sun rising. It was stunningly beautiful. I thought, I have to remember that the sun is shining this gloriously whether I can see it (on a lovely, no clouds, sunny day) or not (cloudy, overcast, all-I-want-to-do-is-stay-in-bed sort of day).

Vintage Baby.

I am taking a Photo Editing class right now and just learned how to vintage hand-tint my pictures. I'll tell you what...not all pictures should be vintage hand-tinted! Rory and I do not look very good washed out with rosie cheeks! But Sonna does. So I'll share this picture from two winters ago.

Little Miss Sunshine

My new skill from Jessica Sprague is turning pictures Sepia and then bringing back the color in just a few select details. This is my niece Mara. I love everything about this girl...especially her free spirit.

My drive to work

I am not a morning person, I love my sleep and my sleep loves me. So when I realized that I would have to leave my house at 7:30 each morning to get to work on time, and would have to wake up at 6:30, I just couldn't fathom how I'd do it.

But so far, I actually haven't minded it too much. I go to bed early enough and I really like the 20 minute commute of listening to good music driving down a gorgeous country road to camp. I took this picture the other day...probably not the best idea, driving and picture-taking, but I'd say it was worth it.

Polka Dotted Highways.

There are two tools we have used as we drive from here to there. One is a tattered oversized state farm road atlas that stays with us in the front seat. The other is Rory's phone with GPS, his gadgety dream come true. Typically I am consulting the map while he is looking at the phone. Too bad no one is looking at the road.

As we began our road trip, I started to figure out that my lovely atlas marks beautiful scenic drives by a line of polka dots next to the drawn highway. We didn't plan to do this when we set out, but the majority of our drives have been on polka dotted scenic drives.

I have become quite accomplished at taking scenic pictures with my hand flapping in the wind out my window as Rory flies us down the highway at 70 miles per hour. Here are a few of my favorite:

Arches!

Our trip to Arches was a three hour detour from our planned route to Aspen and ended up being a complete highlight of the whole trip for me. When I saw the rock next to the picture of me below I laughed. There is so much joy in God's creation- and some of it is just comical- the gigantic redwood trees, the huge rocks jutting out of the ocean in Oregon, and now this...these phenomenal rock formations right in the middle of the desert.

The Pharisees told Jesus to silence the crowd who were praising God, and Jesus replied, "I tell you, even if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will cry out."

The lovely Lake Tahoe

When we end up in a sweet little town (and we know one when we see one) Rory says, "Oh, I have to get an ice cream cone here." And then we venture out to find him his treat to honor the charming, quaint town we find ourselves in.

It was another beautiful day. We walked the shoreline for a while and took in the fall colors.

Troll Knoll

I think the pictures paint the best picture of this magnificent place:

We spent the past two nights at Troll Knoll, gorgeous in every way. John and Anne, parents of my sister-in-law Stephanie, graciously welcomed us on our road trip. I had heard stories of this glorious place, seen pictures before, but wow was it something to behold! There are paths that cover all 20 acres that are filled with gardens, orchards and witty humor. We lodged in Annesville, down one of the paths on their property, in this lovely home in the middle of this mining town.

Annesville is located just down the path from a state of the art Squirrel Socialization Center and just before hitting Pinky's Trailer Park. Here is the Squirrel Socialization Center and a sign to help you get around:

The gardens are filled with these clever destinations that left me smiling a cheesy grin everywhere we walked. There was a beautiful article written about Troll Knoll in August and since then, John and Anne have welcomed hundreds of people to their gardens. This year they have had over 4,000 visitors! They just hired some help, but mostly this is entirely the fruits of their own labor.

Check out this news segment that aired at the beginning of October. I think it paints the best picture of the joy and whimsy found in this place. The segment will appear in a box above the ant pictures...just give it a minute to load. It is completely worth it:

http://www.news10.net/life/entertainment/story.aspx?storyid=48968&catid=34

And the website for more pictures is http://www.trollknoll.com/

Thanks to John and Anne for incredible conversation and delicious food in a glorious setting.

Friday in Santa Cruz

We were greeted by dolphins and a few sea lions and spent a glorious day enjoying the sun. It was 81 degrees, and actually got so hot we had to leave the beach for a while to get out of the sun. But before we left, Rory announced that the ocean was calling him.

The water was very, very cold, and I did not hear the ocean calling me.

We came back in the afternoon to watch the sunset...now that is the beauty of the west coast. The sun always sets on the water. It actually took me a while to realize that this would happen everywhere as we drove down the coast.