Yosemite ~

As anyone who knows me well could attest too, the four most important things to me are:

God

Family

Running 

And Coffee  ;-)

And yes, I realize that it almost seems like blasphemy to list the first with the last, but try to imagine a Grand Canyon distance between number one and number four.

I had some amazing experiences with each in the last week in Yosemite

God - First off I can’t imagine visiting Yosemite and seeing all the awe-inspiring waterfalls and sheer cliffs and not walk away in complete amazement at how mighty and amazing our God is. 

 Romans 1:20 says  “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” 
 This really spoke to me as I looked up at Half Dome, hiked up to Vernal Falls, and walked 3 miles through Mariposa Grove with 3,000 year old 200 feet tall trees. Stunning.

On a more personal note, I got to spend some quiet time praying for each one of my children.  God has been really moving my heart to pray for each child’s future spouse. Thankful that a God who can create touring trees and mighty cascading falls

also cares enough to listen to the prayers of his children.

Panning for gold in Columbia Ca

Family- Now this is where my heart was filled this last couple of weeks. It has been enjoyable being away from the day-to-day distractions and just being together as a family.  Like any vacation (in our case a new way of life) , you step away from the humdrum of life and get to explore new things.  It was so fun watching the younger three kids float down a creek together, but what was even better was having the older two laugh together with their Dad and I at the silly things the younger kids would say while in the river. Normally kids are encouraged to hang with their friends and desire to be away from their parents.  While all these things are to be expected, I want to foster the relationships between siblings and parents most of all. For what is more important than the life long bond between family?  My ears where filled with the music of my kids laughing so hard that their sides hurt when they where playing ping pong. (It was harder then they thought to keep that little ball going back and forth over the net.)  

-Now don’t believe for one second that it is all fun and games , we still have had our issues with kids arguing and disobedience, well duh!

 Running - 4,000 feet of elevation difference then what I am normally used to and 100 degree temperature while watching for rattle snakes (yes, we saw one cross our path) has made a normal 7 mile run turn into quite the adventure.  I have loved the silence of the mornings when all you can hear are the birds chirping and the thumping of your heart.  What I didn’t like was the ridiculously slow time shown on my GPS watch, so I left it at home the next couple of runs so I could just enjoy the alluring beauty that surrounded me.

Coffee- we stayed at Yosemite Lakes Camp Ground about 20 minutes away from the town of Groveland CA.  Wes had to have Internet connection for work, so the kids and I would go into town  to get groceries and of course, COFFEE! We found a place called Mountain Sage. It had a very hippie, earthy feel to it. Everything was organic and they had a large garden in the back with hammocks for the kids to swing on.  While in line waiting to order, I overheard a local in front of me purchase an orange dark chocolate  mocha. That sounded divine to me and of course I followed suit.

Ooooh, a little bit of peace with every sip is what ensued. So if you are ever in that area…. go there.

-I will write more about my thoughts on RVing life in the next post . I don't feel like we have been doing it long enough to give it a fair assessment yet. :-)