Rocky Mountain Splendor

Wow. That is an understatement, in trying to sum up how blessed we have been traveling around this great country God has made! To see the mountains erupt from farmlands and then come down from the tundra of the mountain tops to the sun scorched land in the south was truly incredible to witness God's creative hand all over this great land.
We traveled to Denver CO, the mile high city, while there we squeezed in a trip to the Denver Mint getting a tour of the only US government department that MAKES $ (ha ha) We also toured the capital building, including a tour of the dome (yes up there ~ see the tiny spiral staircase? no we didn't climb that but we were right next to it!) From there it's an amazing view of the mountains!
After the homeschool convention, we spent Father's day in Rocky Mtn national park.
This had been a lake higher up on the mtn which broke through and is now a river; amazing the power of water, the boulders it moved were HUGE!
Ahh the view is just spectacular ~ yes I was just a wee bit nervous ~don't worry there was more of a ledge beyond them :)
Even Chuck did pretty good being up so high As we climbed higher and higher we were so thankful for a vehicle that could transport all of us. The thought of being in a covered wagon and attempting to cross these mountains is about impossible!
We made it to the highest point 12,000 something and enjoyed the snow at the top :)
Yes, snowballs were thrown and no, I did not get hit since I stayed in the van on baby duty!
And the camera specialist went for a few more optical illusions:
Lean on the mountain.....Hang on for you life! as we began to descend many of us suffered from the usual altitude dizziness and headache however when we got down everyone was feeling fine, with the exception of mom :( Maybe it was being overwhelmed with gratitude for all the modern conveniences that we have, or the grasping of this incredible blessing our family has to do all this traveling in between working or maybe it was just a plain old case of altitude sickness but I was knocked out the whole ride back to Denver, moaning along the way and wishing we had a bed in the van! when we finally reached the hotel the kids enjoyed dinner and a movie in the hotel "living room" while I crashed in our room! Didn't wake up really until morning at which point I felt MUCH better!
Especially knowing the history of this song.... it seems very appropriate to close with it.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
(to see more verses click the link on the first line)

A Little Bit of History....

The lyrics to this beautiful song were written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) an instructor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, after an inspiring trip to the top of Pikes Peak, Colorado, in 1893.