Johnson's Shut-Ins

Okay, I realize it has been awhile since I last posted to this blog but I have been recovering from our vacation.  Why recover, you might ask?  Well, we headed to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park for a wonderful time.  Every morning we would do a hike and every afternoon we swam in the river.  I might want to mention the temps were in the 100's all but one day.  Lest you pity us, however, we were in a very nice camper with air conditioning!

Anyway, we played very very hard.  I spent the week face-to-face with the incredible beauty of God's creation, constantly amazed at the diversity and uniqueness of what He has done.  Let me show you...

This is the East Fork of the Black River.  It winds it's way down the Ozark Mts. to be squeezed through this little valley over some incredibly hard rock called dolomite. 
The river has scooped out the rock over the centuries and created  little natural water slides, which people slither down with the help of the river's current.  Kids loved it, a little too much current action for me.  I preferred the quiet pools further upstream. . .

Here are the kids (well, two of them) swimming in the clearest water I have ever seen in a natural setting.  They are watching the fish and tadpoles swim up to nibble on them. 

Here is a shot from one of our hikes.  This was a two-handed walk at times, holding on to trees and rocks, that lifted us up over the knobs of the mountain and then back down in the valley.  I'm proud of my kids.  They really hung in there.  This is a quiet little waterfall in the midst of the trees and rocks. 

We didn't just stay at the Shut-Ins, though.  Take a look at these!

This is part of Elephant Rocks State Park, just down the road from where we were.  Amazing, isn't it!  These huge rocks, sitting on top of the mountain.  It looked like Mars up there, with boulders the size of spaceships tossed around.

This was the funniest part of the trip.  After Elephant Rocks, we headed to the top of Taum Sauk Mt, the highest point in the state of Missouri.  I know, you people in Colorado are thinking we are crazy to even call the Ozarks mountains, but they are ours and that's what we call 'em!  So anyway, we're taking this very nicely paved trail through timber waiting impatiently for the trees to open up and present us with a breathtaking vista of the peaks all around.  After all, we just left the Elephant Rocks (which were incredible and breathtaking all on their own), so this will be better. . . right? 

Um, no.  This picture is my family standing on a little rock poking out of the ground beside an unremarkable tree set in the usual Missouri timber.  The rock does have a granite plaque, though, that some thoughtful Missourian placed there.

Yep, this is the highest elevation point in Missouri.  I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't take the picture.

Well, this is enough inflicting my vacation on you poor unsuspecting readers.  Thanks for waiting.  I have nothing pithy to close with, except that I truly enjoyed laughing with my husband and children this week.  I can't wait until we can go again.

Outside my back door

Fun doesn't have to be complicated.  Fun can be simple & cheap, lying just ouside your back door.  Let me show you.

Just outside my back door are five bicycles.  Those bicycles provided hours of fun this past week for my family.  We visited my parents, my sister and her family in Rochester, Minnesota, for the 4th of July and took our bikes with us.

My kids rode their bikes over to their aunt's house to play.  They rode to the pool every day.  The guys took off one afternoon while us ladies sat and gossiped -- oops, I mean visited :-)  One day we loaded up and went in to Rochester and rode the trails there.  Three generations of family tooling around beautiful paths, checking out the nature sanctuary and having a great visit.  In fact, we were able to get in to see the Rochester Honkers play baseball for free because we rode our bikes to the game.

Now, if we hadn't taken the bikes we still would have enjoyed our time together.  However, adding the bikes to the trip was a sprinkle of cinnamon on the latte.  We didn't need to spend more money to do it - we just used what was available and had fun with it. 

My question for you is what have you done this summer to have fun?  Have you listened to your children laugh?  Read a book by a new author?  Read a book considered an old friend?  It's too easy to define fun as shopping, eating at restaurants, or watching movies.  All of these activities are fun, but they cost money and calories and you just sit and get.  Fun can also be planting a garden, even if that garden is one tomato plant in a bucket.  Fun can be bringing the neighbor across the street some of the cookies your kids just baked. (I hate baking cookies.  All cookie baking is done by husband or children in our house.)

Go look outside your back door.  What do you see?  A patch of lawn that could grow a flower or tomato plant?  A sidewalk to explore?  Neighbors to meet?  Maybe you see a bicycle. . . take it for a spin.  You will have fun!