Colorado 2016 Family Pictures

“Keep close to Nature’s heart…and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” John Muir

Somewhere tucked beyond the rows of aspens, high where the wind and sky meet, we retreated to our sanctuary.  In this place we find escape and rest, nestled between rocks of granite and rivers that cut through the earth.  In this place, where the wildness of nature knows no bounds we feel small. 

On this road that wound through miles of forests, where sun beams dance off leaves and the scent of evergreens fill our senses, we for a moment in time stopped to breath creation in.  Where else can you see God’s artistic strokes of detail and glory in such open and unbounded wildness?  Our smallness makes us remember how frivolous our toil can be; how nature itself does not take any man or circumstance into consideration.  Here we see clearly that nature does not need us, but rather we need nature.   

Here, where July wildflowers bloom from the spring rains, and the hands of my children touch the earth that has been unchanged by the winds, rain and seasons we feel a part of this beautiful cycle.   

  We will look back and remember these days, shared atop a Colorado mountain meadow surrounded by granite peaks dusted with white.  Like a balm for the soul, the mountains teach lessons no man can teach and heals the deepest parts of our being.

“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied – it speaks in silence to the very core of your being” Ansel Adams

So we will remember the mountain wind through our hair, the tender touches of love shared, and the brilliant colors that filled the hands of our children.     Oh but for a moment we can make time stand still.  We can push out the toils of this world and forget.  Because it’s in the mountains where we feel alive.  It’s in the mountains where our hearts will always remain.   Here we will find our strength renewed; this is where we will remember how beautiful it is to feel small.  Here is where we will return to teach our children to respect this untamed, raw beauty that will follow us long after we leave.  

We will always cherish this precious lessons taught, journeys taken and adventures experienced.  No, there is no place like the mountains.  There is no place we would rather be. A special thanks goes to my friend, Ashley Clinesmith for capturing these priceless family shots.