The Artist

We went for a hike in Mt. Spokane State Park yesterday- probably one of the last hikes we will do in Washington. I am hoping to make it to the top of Mt. Kit Carson one more time before we move... I have just over two weeks to do it!

Notice the amount of snow still on the mountain... in June! There was actually more snow yesterday than there was in May because of the cold snap we had last week. We weren't really thinking about that when we went on our hike. My poor husband was wearing his Vibran FiveFingers (toe shoes), which are great if you are running in the heat, but not so good if you are hiking in the snow. We had to stop a few times so he could warm his feet, once in my arm pit.

Aside from the snow, we had a really nice hike. It was in the mid 60s at the bottom of the mountain, but we could see our breath as we went up. We hiked for a little over an hour up and a little less than an hour down. Milli had a great time, as always, and fell asleep sometime in the last half hour.

We bought this backpack from a guy in Post Falls just a couple of weeks ago. He posted it on Craigslist and we scooped it up! Milli just loves it because she can see above our heads. Everything is new to her and hiking gives her so much to look at! 

Don't worry, Grandma and Nana, I put her hat on her when it began to get cold.

Nature was at it's best this weekend. We saw a cute little mouse, some baby squirrels, fast running mountain streams with little waterfalls, and more. But the real beauty began when we left the woods. 

We left the park around 7 pm. As we were rounding one of the corners, we saw what we thought was a hawk soaring very low. It landed on a fencepost just as we were passing and turned out not to be a hawk.

It seemed a little early for him to be out, sunset being around 9:30 pm right now. We passed him by, but had to turn around for a picture. He was so pretty and sat politely on the post until we got several good shots of him. Milli didn't seem to care that we were seeing a pretty bird. Maybe in a few years.

Right after we saw the owl, we saw a beautiful doe standing on the edge of the road. Deer are very prevalent in Michigan, where we are from, so you would think we wouldn't care so much. They are pests and people hit them with their cars all the time back home. But despite their annoying qualities, I still find them beautiful. We did not get a picture of her or any of her friends which we saw in the fields as we passed. When we tried to point out the very close doe to Milli, she looked with interest in the opposite direction and missed her. That's OK. I'm sure she'll see more.

But God wasn't done showing us his handiwork yet. Not even close.

Trees are my second favorite thing in nature- mostly deciduous because of the fall colors, but conifers are pretty, too. In two and a half weeks, we'll be traveling through the Redwood National Park, so I might change my mind about my tree preference then. I'll let you know.

My most favorite thing in nature is sky.

Can you blame me? This is the sky that met us as we were leaving the wheat fields. I had just been talking to my sister about sky and the place it holds at the top of my favorites list. She asked me why- and as we saw this sky, I repeated what I had told her to my husband. Sky is my favorite because it is different every time you look at it. The cloud formation that is cannot be repeated. Therefore, the sky that we are looking at this moment is seen only by us- no one who ever existed before us has ever seen it and no one who comes after us will ever see it. This piece of art is for us only. It is for now only. After I said this to my husband, he brushed my face with the back of his hand and said, "Reba, you are a poet!" That seemed a stretch to me, since someone else could have rendered the idea much more artfully than I had. But the concept is poetic. I guess I would say I am more of a romantic- I find the romance in the sky and try to share it. My response to him was "THAT is poetry," with an emphatic pointing of my hand. "What else you got!" he shouted at the sky. God responded with...

Now, you have to ignore all the man made stuff in the foreground. There is a beautiful double rainbow beyond it. The bow to the left got brighter and brighter as we drove. The bow to the right was only around a moment.

Rainbows are distinctly special because of the promise that comes with them. God put his bow in the sky and promised that never again would he destroy the entire earth with water. Rainbows have become a symbol to many of all the promises of God. 

The most memorable rainbow for me was when I was driving back from Minnesota with my friend Kristen Crisher. She had been having a very bad month. We were roommates at the time and I had tried to share her burdens with her; but it had been an especially bad month. As we were driving and talking, the clouds in the sky parted just enough to let a ray of sun through... and a rainbow shot across the sky. KC immediately smiled and cried at the same time. "God is faithful," she said. 

And He was. 

And He is.