Finding a sandy beach @ Angostura Reservoir

Since it warmed up, we have been on the hunt for a perfect water/beach spot in the Black Hills. We've realized that spending a summer in Leavenworth and also one at Priest Lake has really spoiled us on living near perfect lakes and rivers ... up until this weekend we'd had a really hard time finding a place that worked for us. Most of the "lakes" here are very small without real sand, and any beach area ends up being overcrowded. A friend mentioned to me that Angostura was large with great sand and we finally got to check it out on Saturday.

We were not disappointed. It is a large reservoir, southeast of the Black Hills that appeared to have sand beaches lined with cottonwood trees along the entire eastern edge. We arrived early and claimed a spot -- the sand was REAL sand, with a gradual entry into the fairly clear water and lots of cottonwood trees along the shore for shade. Perfect.

Getting the kids to 12,000 feet @ Rocky Mountain National Park

Last week we got to go camping for a few nights near Rocky Mountain National Park and it was amazing! It was so good to get away for a bit and be in midst of some really big (and totally stunning) mountains. I'm thinking this will be a two part post as there were just too many pretty places!

Camping with little kids can have some challenging moments, but overall Luke & Mabel did great and seemed to love every moment. Our campground had no running water and it's been a while since I went without a shower for days on end...but even that was sort of nice. It made it feel like "real" camping.  It was our first time going camping with the subaru -- definitely a very tight squeeze getting the four of us, plus camping gear, clothing, food and water for all of us for several days into the compact space, but Jason was his usual packing genius and got it all in! Whew!

We got to spend our first night in Denver visiting with our friend, William, from Peace Corps and his wife Laura, which was fantastic! We hadn't seen William since Luke was about 6 weeks old!

With William, then and now -- a lot can change in 5 years!

First day at Olive Ridge Campground - getting the tent set up with wonderful helpers :)

Day two: Our first stop & hike at Lily Lake

Driving the spectacular Old Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor Center

Hiking up the Alpine Ridge Trail

Ending the day with S'mores, of course!

Seeing friends and Nebraska one last time

With our friends, the Deeds Family moving back to Indiana, we got to make one last trip down to Valentine last month. It was a very lovely weekend. Full of a lot of fun intermingled with a lot of repressed sadness over their departure. With their new home being over 1000 miles away instead of just 200, we are not expecting to get to see each other for a while and we'll probably not be visiting Nebraska anymore either :)

We will really, really miss our friends and have been feeling so thankful for the sweet time we had to live near them once again. It's been about four years since we said goodbye to them in Guatemala ... we're looking forward to see if God will place us nearby each other again in four years.

Starting a hike across the 'Cowboy Bridge' on the Cowboy Trail

Fun, hanging out time together

Smith Falls, the highest waterfall in Nebraska!