What a trip!

In five hours, we had hiked six miles and climbed over two thousand feet. The valley stretched out below us, filled with three lakes and an endless forest of spruce and log pole pine. Majestic mountains framed the valley on two sides. In front of us, a large hill of snow swallowed the trail and blocked the remaining short climb to the pass. But we felt fortunate to have climbed this far. On the hike back down, we walked through a herd of big horn sheep. All in all, it was a day to capture memories that will last a lifetime.

Sara's favorite place was the Olympic rain forests in Washington, where we walked through cathedrals of moss-covered cedar and pine. Jonathan enjoyed tubing down the Little River on the Carolina side of the Smoky Mountains, seeing grizzlies in Montana, and deer in Alberta. Martha enjoyed the ruggedness of Glacier National Park. Hannah was awed by the beauty of the Canadian Rockies in Banff National Park. I reckon David's favorite part was graduating from college.

In addition to the National Parks, we toured Gettysburg Battle Field and attended a square dance in Pennsylvania with Hannah's history classmates. While spending a couple of days with Jan's father and stepmother in Virginia, Hannah and I checked out Liberty University in Lynchburg. In Chicago, we were treated by three Filipino friends who fed us and took us on a high rise tour of the 101-story Hancock Building. By the time our month long excursion concluded last night, we had added 9,240 miles on our van.

Now it's back to business. Hannah leaves tomorrow for a four week summer job at Riverbend Retreat Center. On Saturday, Martha leaves for a church mission trip in Green Bay, Wisconsin and Jonathan leaves with a church mission group to south Texas. I've got school to plan and other matters to catch up on, but we will continue to maximize our time with David before he leaves on Saturday, flying to Washington D.C. to begin his job career.

For those who prayed for us while we vacationed, thank you for realizing that this is likely the last time our family will have such an extended time together. It was a great bonding time that gave us memories to cherish.