Flight of the Canyons

**Note to self: "add a caption" option under the pictures messes things up . . .

Here we are on our way up the mountain earlier this week:

Running to catch up. 

Kate has been my right arm with Brandon gone. 

Isn't it pretty? Even through the scratched plastic?  Right after I took this picture, we went up over a deep canyon and I freaked out.  I wish I had kept the video rolling because little Rachael started to try and calm me down by saying, "We're not going to die, Mom!"  

Once off the gondola we rode the lift up a little higher, planning to picnic and hike our way back down.

My little lift buddy.  Lifts freak me out.  Especially since Elizabeth jumped off one a little too early when she was just four and rolled backward down the mountain in snow skis.  Yeah.  She was fine, but that's the kind of thing that permanently scars a mother's psyche. 


Finally at the top, ready to find our
 picnic spot.

I don't know WHAT they are constructing up there in the middle of the wilderness, but it put a little damper on our quest for peace and quiet.  It bugged some of us more than others!

This is where we had our little picnic, right by the bridge and stream below. 

Once back "home" at the apartment we suited up to go for a swim, but not before Elizabeth put on quite the window box performance - it was pretty funny.