Anniversary Getaway

This weekend we enjoyed an amazing anniversary getaway at Sundance. I just can't believe that we have a place this amazing 20 minutes from our front door!

We spent the weekend eating (a lot), mountain biking (not enough), hiking (just right), drinking (probably too much), and just enjoying hanging out with our very favorite person in the whole wide world (never enough). It was a sweet, chill, beautiful weekend. The perfect celebration.

After Friday night's Bluebird concert we decided to try our hand at mountain biking on Saturday. You may recall that my last mountain biking attempt, almost exactly one year ago, ended spectacularly catastrophically with me unable to walk for almost a month. It was truly terrible.

So, of course, we had to try again. We stuck to easy trails and, like a weenie, I walked down all intimidating-looking parts. Steve was very patient. We had the power of matching orange shirts, so we were pretty much destined to have a great day (I swear, neither of us realized this was happening as we packed for the weekend).

The trails were amazing and a good mix of Steve's love of downhill and my love of wide roads and climbing. I tell you what, if you could combine the two of us you would get some kind of mega-biker.

So, despite our proven accident-proneness we made it down the mountain in one piece with no falls and big smiles.

Saturday night ended with our favorite dinner in the whole wide world - Bearclaw Supper Club! We couldn't decide whether we should just wuss out and take the lift up or not, but eventually Steve sweetly acquiesced to Jamie's enthusiasm and we "earned our appetizers" by hiking up to the top of Sundance.

And, oh my goodness, thank goodness we did because the lift broke down and everybody else was delayed for an hour. That's right folks, we had this spread all to ourselves for a full hour while they worked to get the rest of the guests up! Best private party ever.

Yes, we did all that damage to the honeycomb all by ourselves. No, we had no regrets.

The rest of the guests did eventually arrive, which was good because then they brought out the carving table and other hors d'oeuvres and the band started playing instead of just sitting around and drinking with us. Of course, after eating roughly my body weight in sausage, cheese, bread, and honey I was pretty much useless for the rest of the food but I did manage to find space for a cream puff or three.

As the sun set we finished our glasses of wine and third or fifth creme puff and just marveled. This beautiful weekend. This beautiful world. The blessings, adventures, tough stuff, and growth we've experienced in our first 17 years. It's a lot to be grateful for.

A few weeks ago, Pastor Scott preached on trials and tough times and said that, "at the end of perseverance is joy." That has certainly been our experience. I believe that it will be true through the rest of the tough stuff that life will bring - that at the end of every time of perseverance we will find joy.

The coolest part of the evening (and that's saying something, since the whole day was totally amazing) was this rainbow that God blessed us with. I can't imagine a better way to remember and celebrate the promise that two kids made 17 years ago. God is good and God is faithful - we are living proof.