I live in Colorado and honestly I can take the beautiful weather and mountains for granted.  Whenever someone finds out I live in Colorado they go on and on how lucky I am….which I am.  I grew up in Illinois and I have a secret to tell…..I really think IT is beautiful.  I just returned from seeing my parents in Illinois.  I drove with my three children (ages 1-8).  Many thought I was crazy, but it went really well and I now know I can do it again.  About three years ago my parents sold the house I grew up in and moved to the country.  They now live on a non-working farm.  They own about five acres and they are surrounded by hundreds of acres of fields full of corn and soybeans.  Saying that my children think it is paradise is an understatement.  They make forts in the pines, tree houses, play on the tractors and run through the bean fields.  My daughter would wake up early every morning so she could do "farm work" with Grandpa.  They would ride around the yard on tractors, pull carrots from the garden and just get amazingly dirty.  It took me a few days to get used to not really going anywhere….just being.  We would take walks down the gravel lane and we would be surrounded by corn.  CORN.  I have seen it my whole life, but this time when the wind would gently blow the whole field it looked beautiful.  At night we would be in awe of the thousands of fireflies softly lighting up the fields….it was truly breathtaking.  When we returned home last night it was amazing to see the mountains and feel the cool Colorado night air.  It was also nice to know that for a while I stopped long enough to see the amazing beauty that the Lord has created that has always been right in front of me. 

Please forgive the quality of the pictures.  I didn't take my good camera with me and I didn't know the lens had fingerprints on it.  Probably not a good idea to let a one year old play with it.