Labor Day

My mom sent me a text monday morning saying she was working in the yard, laboring on labor day. Well we labored too. It was probably more fun though. Sam and I went up to Rocky Mountain National Park with our new friends, Danny and Kelsey Hansen. We planned on checking out Estes park then doing a couple little hikes in the national park. Uh, our new friends are a little more hard core than that. We ended up hiking 12 miles! But it was totally worth it. Because at the top we saw a herd of 12 elk! They started out down the lake a little way but then they all got in the water and started swimming! Who knew elk could swim?! (okay, probably a lot of people knew that like elk experts and hunters but we didn't know that). The boys had run closer to the elk while they were still on land. Kelsey and I were still where we all started. And it was really fascinating that the elk were swimming across the lake . . . until they started swimming TOWARD us. The female and baby elk didn't bother me, but the bull was HUGE! The boys came back over to where we were, thinking we should probably leave in case the elk blocked the trail. So we did. But it was so cool to see animals in the wild like that! Rocky Mountain was our fourth national park this year and I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed by the beautiful places God has created. I'm so glad we still have places on earth where you can be away from man-made things and enjoy nature.
12 miles of hiking treated us well. We enjoyed Mexican food and ice cream afterward (and sleep even more!).

(I can't get the pictures to upload right now! . . . I'll put them up later)

On a side note (or maybe this should be the main post and the rest should be a side note) my heart goes out to everyone effected by the horrible events that took place on 9/11--to those who died on that day, those who live with the grief and loss of those that died, and all the lives of American soldiers, Pakistanis and Afghans that have been lost in the 10 years of war since.