vacation

naphtali, hubby james and grandson, aidan (the kahls) spent the last week with us. always a delight to see them, this year we changed our traditional september hike to accomodate aidan's upcoming school days!! hard to believe the little guy is starting kindergarten. hoping to find somewhere less crowded and touristy we decided on the snowy range of wyoming. it was beautiful and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. cars were coming in as we left friday morning but our hike to the indian bathtubs (there's a story!!)











fishing at mirror lake,
and the attempt to find hog park resevoir all took place in relative solitude. delightful.







we celebrated naphtali's birthday
with a party the likes of which she hasn't seen in years (complete with paper hats and noise makers) thanks to aidan's relentless party-planning drive.

james built a campfire every night and we sat and enjoyed the tranquility. we had deer in our backyard,
listened to various birds calling, saw humming birds flit and swoop, watched a storm build and roll through the valley.
we had the lodge at river ridge cabins and i will gladly put in a plug for them. look into river ridge before you travel out that way. nestled between the sierra madre and medicine bow mountains in southern wyoming we enjoyed our options for daily activities.
charlie was happy to see us return. thanks to marg for taking care of him. tim and i sat out back saturday night and saw our own hummingbird and a double rainbow in our very own backyard. neither of us was energetic enough to rush inside for the camera....
i'll post more pictures over the next few days......