Family: Good times and Grace

Hitting the Trail.

Giving Una a Pep Talk.

Una's all ready to go.

Frolicking in the meadow.

Resemblance?

July, believe it or not.

Dog Tired.

Hanging out in the kitchen.

Husband tries a new recipe...

It started raining so we roasted marshmallows from inside the tent.

Beautiful morning.

We love waking up to this!

David looks like this:

Because we were about to climb this:

Look at our amazing dog bag the peaks!

The lake from above

I finally made it up.

The summit of Baldy.

Taking a break.

New Mexico: sometimes you run into free-range cattle in the woods.

Una liked finding head-props.


As I mentioned previously, my brother came this weekend, sort of a last huzzah before the impending post-college career path. We had a wonderful time. There is nothing so precious as sibling fellowship because, as Kurt Vonnegut says "you should stay friends forever with those who knew you when you were young," or something like that, which I think rings true.

A church friend asked earlier this year how my siblings and I are so close in friendship, and I have been thinking about it for awhile.

I don't think we can give credit to anything but the grace of God. Certiainly, that grace acted through the decisions of my parents to homeschool us for many years and to always put us & family first. It brought our family to move nine times by the time I graduated high school. It allowed us to share most of our family meals together growing up and to have family devotions together each night before bed, all factors which may have added to the fact that we still try to talk to each other at least once a week.

But it can only be Grace that gives my brother a desire to come visit us even though I hit him on the head with a spoon when he was five years old. That we can forgive such things is a miraculous measure of Grace, for which I'm very thankful. I hope our lives bring many more blessed times together in the future, but whether the times are gray or golden, I'm thankful we will all share them together.