July 4th, 2010

As most of you were enduring high temperatures on Sunday July 4th, 2010, we had an unusually nice and cool day in Northern Colorado. The high temp was 84'F, and the low was 51'F.

We decided to find a spot in the mountains to eat our lunch, which was probably at ~9,000-ft.


It was almost jacket weather, but really just perfect in the middle of the summer.

Temperature trend in Ward, CO just a few miles from our picnic.


We were unable to find an unused site with a picnic table, but we were brave enough to 'rough-it' for our lunch. We spread our tablecloth on the forest floor, and used rocks and coolers to sit on.

It was delightful. The South St. Vrain River was still quite high from spring snow melt run-off, creating a most pleasant ambiance in which to enjoy our lunch, just a few feet from the roaring water's edge.

With our lunch completed, we took time for some restful, worshipful, and contemplative time along the river. The kids took many pictures to document this time.

As we do every Sunday evening, we needed to go to Federal Heights (north Denver) for neighborhood kids' Sunday School, which begins at 5:00 PM. We chose to traverse the mountains via Peak-to-Peak Scenic Byway to get to the Denver metro area, instead of returning to the interstate highway, which we see so often.

On our trip to Federal Heights we passed
Barker Meadow Reservoir, with Nederland, CO in the background.

It was a marvelous day, though we only had three sweet, attentive children in Sunday School; the others were involved in holiday revelries of various kinds.

As we made our way home from Federal Heights, we watched a tremendous thunderstorm building before our very eyes. Soon after we arrived home, the hard rain began, which yielded 1.3" in our gauge, but thank the Lord - NO hail. Though the area public fireworks displays had to be canceled or postponed, it was a splendid ending to a perfect day.

As always, it was a delightful Sabbath Day, a restful, and refreshing time in the mountains, and an enjoyable time with family; we did greatly miss Beth, who is in Joplin helping with VBS this week.

Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him." Surely we have found that rich blessing in His presence this holiday weekend.