One Year and Counting...

Marking the 1 year anniversary of my move to Idaho, let's do a quick pictureless review. But I must start with Psalms 121, a message of trust, hope, promise and assurance for lifes journey:

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."

A year in review:
- 20,000 miles in a plane
- 28,000 miles in a bus
- 22,000 miles in a car
- 17 different National Parks
- >11,000 pictures
- 8 lbs of peanut butter
- 121 granola bars (an educated guess)
and 52 Blog posts (367MB of pictures and videos) for your entertainment! But enough of the stats - you came here for pictures, so let's see what last weekend was all about:
I know - looks pretty boring, until you realize those are gazillions of little fish jumping for food at the Hagerman State Fish Hatchery!
A few canals down, the fish got bigger and turned yellow, or maybe they were always yellow.
Some larger fish in their "show pond". Check out this guy! He was about 5 feet long. I think that's a rainbow trout next to him.
Kisses anyone?
Just down the road was the National Fish Hatchery.
Here's the tanker trucks they use to transport the fish to the rivers and lakes when stocking them.
Looking for places to break up the drive over to Boise, I also stopped at the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument hoping to see, well, fossils of course! Stopping at the Visitor's Center, the park ranger informed me that there were no fossils outside - they were all inside now alongside the well known Hagerman horse. But, I was in the middle of the "Land of 1000 Springs" and you could allegedly see waterfalls all along the road. So, off I went exploring...
...see the Oregon Trail ruts? Yeah, me either...
...B-O-R-I-N-G! And how about just 1 of the 1000 springs?
"Oh, and if you find any fossils - don't touch them. Just mark the spot and tell us about it." Yeah, all I saw were desert hills and this sand box left over from some Archeology Camp. I should have dug around to see if they buried any legomen.
I arrived in Boise just in time for a Youth Rally, which is always fun. It was good to see some people I had met previously, but no pictures until I was headed to Parriman's and saw the moon rising over the horizon. Of course, pictures don't do it justice, so I'll just continue this little story at...
...the top of Squaw Butte. After catching up with Andy and Dixie, who recently moved to western Idaho, we caught a little bit of sleep and drove up Squaw Butte in time for sunrise.
4-wheel drive has its advantages out West!
Looking East and waiting for the sun to poke through the clouds...
...there it is!
The extent of my artistic photography.
Carson takes a break from feeding the imaginary deer to smile big for the camera.
Exploring some more forest roads, we found Sage Hen Reservoir, minus some of its water and lots of mud...
...which is always fun to walk through. A little creek running through.
On the way back, we drove through the town of Sweet, one of those towns that doesn't even get a stop light, but they do have a sweet water spring... and by sweet, the water actually has a sweet taste too it!
This definitely isn't your ordinary high school, and no, I wasn't in Alaska!
So, that was my weekend in Boise. But, before I head out on another adventure, I figure I should pass along a few more pictures from my recent trip to Grand Teton National Park.
The Teton's as the sun creeps over the horizon.
The sun's light moves down the mountains...
...while an oblivious bull moose gets some breakfast.
My talking will only take away from the beauty of the Teton's, so enjoy the rest!













The infamous town square in Jackson with a elk horned gate on each corner. If only these guys could have done a handstand for me...
Albany County?!?

Grand Teton National Park... yet again

Working second shift this week, I took the opportunity to swing by Grand Teton National Park for sunrise on Monday morning. Below are just a few of the pictures I took as I sat in awe at the splendor of God's mighty and majestic creation. As I meandered around Shwabacher Landing in the crisp morning air with elk and moose sauntering by, I couldn't help but praise God for his beauty, majesty, ever-renewing mercy and never dying faithfulness to me. As Jeremiah penned in the third book of Lamentations, "Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'" These same words were inspiration for the great hymn, "Great is Thy Faithfulness". Have you experienced God's mercy or unchanging faithfulness?
Out of the hundreds of pictures and panorama's, I'll post the following three pictures, all taken at the same location. Check back soon for the rest, along with this weekend's adventure!
My favorite single shot picture.

Home, Bridges and Caves

Can you believe it's already November?!? If time flies when you're having fun... then I must be having lots of fun! Wondering what's been so fun? Well, it all started early last weekend when I spent an evening traveling from Idaho, to Utah, to Arizona, to Michigan, and finally, to New York! While I don't mind the extra frequent flier miles, flying 800 miles South to go due East seemed a bit excessive. However, I was very thankful to make all the connections and even spend some time with my sisters and brother-in-law, all before the Youth Rally! It's always exciting to see the young people and swarm the local McDonald's for a chance to catch up with the kids. From there, it was off to sleep... and lots of it!

While rain thwarted our plans to hike Buck Mountain, Joy seized the opportunity to put together a desk for her house.
Lots of pieces and parts, a few tools, and yup... those are the directions right in the middle. After being distracted by some delicious broccoli and cheese soup, I failed to get a picture of the final product.
After cleaning off another round of dinner, it's Pictionary time. (Clockwise: Mom, Joy, Josh, Faith)
Yeah - better pick different teams next time...
...granted, I have no idea how to draw "Rio Grande", but this definitely didn't help! (The "Rio Grande" and "FL" were added later for clarity.) After a great Sunday back at the home Church and a few hours on Monday to see friends, I was back in the air to finish out the work week in Idaho.
You can tell I'm back out West by the lack of color, and if you look close, you'll see a natural bridge in the middle of the picture. A coworker told me about this natural bridge near Arco, and knew that you'd need 4-wheel drive to get to it. So, Ryan and Troy were game and we headed out to find it. After a short but steep hike, we found it.
I guess we didn't need the snowshoes, although the brisk morning air was tough on my sick lungs.
Eyeing the bridge from below...
...and from the backside looking across the desert...
...while Ryan and Troy scaled new heights in an attempt to get out over it.
Feeling light-headed and unsteady already, I opted to man the camera's this time...
...getting some good views of the 80 foot high span...
...until Ryan and Troy made it out over the arch, crumbling rocks as they went (and yes, the are crazy).
That's a long ways up...
...and being 6'7" had to help here.
One last look at the mountains before we headed off to another adventure.
Have you ever read over a familiar passage of Scripture, only to see something totally new? Have you ever gone by something on the road over 400 times, only to discover something that has been there the whole time? I'm not going to compare a cave to the Living Word, but right on the side of the road, behind a big historical sign for "Elephant Hunters" on my way to work, is an entrance to a cave! Since we were headed that way anyways, we decided to check it out. As you can see, the entrance (and entire cave) has been well decorated over the years.
Looking back at the cave entrance, waiting for the others to round up a working light (we hadn't planned on caving).
Some more artwork in the cave. The cave was probably at least 1/4 mile long with a solid dirt floor and well rounded, high ceilings. With a few lights it'd be a great spot for indoor ultimate frisbee, football or even a few basketball hoops. The best part - the building is free!
At the end were a few pools of icky, sticky mud and the remnants from a party, marking the end of another adventurous weekend!