Life's too short...so enjoy!!!!

I love to hike. I'm not the serious kind of hiker that likes the rough terrain and the backpacks upon my shoulders, with sleeping bag and tent in tow...just the "DAY hiker that goes for a stroll along a well beaten path where someone would miss me and come looking for me if I didn't show up for dinner"... kind of hiker. There is a really nice hiking trail up at Moon Lake, which I've hiked a few times but have never made it very far up the trail. Also, I am not sure (I haven't stopped to read the signs long enough to know...) how far back into the mountains that the trail goes, or where I might end up if I kept going on it. But since we were right there at Moon Lake, I wanted to hike in a ways and "partake" of the beauty that the mountains behold. There is just something that I really enjoy about hiking and seeing the mountains close up, instead of just from the outside...I don't know what it is, but I love hiking. Deron didn't want me to go alone and he

wasn't up to going with me, so Todd and Dana decided that they would venture into the woods too. We had a blast...not like an "entertaining kind of blast"...but like "just fun being together" kind of blast. We got to see the lake from way up in the mountains. Which was really neat. We saw how the water rippled when the wind started to blow. We saw ferns and fresh moss growing on the rocks. We saw mounds of rocks that had,

at some point- maybe a thousand years ago, tumbled down the mountains in maybe an earthquake or a rock slide, we saw chipmunks, butterflies, beautiful scenery and things that you just don't get to enjoy from looking at the mountain straight on.

We spent time walking along the trail talking and laughing. Doing things that you do when you're with people that you love.

Dana and I are both wanting to dive into photography and learn more about how to take pictures correctly, with the right light and technique and have them look really cool, (maybe someday we will both be doing it professionally, who knows it could happen...more likely with Dana than me...but you never know)...so we stopped along the way and practiced our skills at taking "still life nature shots" and then even a few fun shots of all of us being "mighty hikers" and posing for the camera. (really, what good is it too go and see

all of this if I am just going to forget it all when I get old...hence the many photo's that I take, I want to remember it all FOREVER or at least have proof that I SHOULD remember it...). Todd was very patient with us and even took a few himself. We hiked for about 2 hours, an hour in and an hour back out. We didn't see any bears (guess we didn't go far enough back into the woods to see them), or anything bigger than a chipmunk, but we enjoyed what we saw. Life is too short to let the little things pass by and to not stop and smell the roses...in this case, the wild flowers! I can't wait to go hiking again!!!