Fall Mountain

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our little outing to the mountains.

We'd really been feeling the need to get out and up for quite some time, but just never found an opportunity to do so. And of course not having a car complicated matters. But with both opportunity and means, we took a drive on Sunday afternoon.

Someone told us that the leaves were already gone on the top of the mountain, so we were worried we'd lost our opportunity, but we saw lots of pretty colors!

 We took a little hike which started out on this dirt road that had some pretty gnarly grooves in it. Every time Ethan went down one, he would say, "Whoa!" He had such fun! It really made me want to give him more opportunities like this.

 Terral couldn't resist climbing this trunk and jumping off.

 And of course Ethan had to follow his daddy's footsteps. He wasn't willing to relinquish his apple though. :) And he insisted on wearing his backpack on our hike.

 We took pictures in front of this big fallen tree. The sun was in our faces, but our camera-conscious boy tried so hard to look the right way in spite of the glare.

  

Gorgeous glow!

 And this is apparently the face Ethan makes when he says cheese.

 Airplane!

 Playing helicopter along another dirt road.

Ethan's been learning about letters, numbers, and colors lately, and he started singing the alphabet song when we got to Crystal Springs. There's a really good echo there, so he got to learn about that too. :)

I had to take a picture of our faithful volvo which is again in the business of taking us on adventures. :)

 We left when the descending sun left the air too cold for me, but we couldn't resist making one more stop before home. We didn't stay long, but the boys did get to throw some rocks in the water. :D

 Oh, it was so nice to get a recharge from nature! I think that there are pieces of the human soul that can only be fed by being among Heavenly Father's creations.