Eight Years Later

Here we were, eight years ago...

Seems like time keeps flying by faster than ever.

It's hard to believe that last month was our eight-year anniversary. I look back at that picture and remember how different we both were at that time. God certainly has brought us through a lot since then. I am so glad that God keeps holding us together. This makes me think of Colossians 1:17, "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." 

This year we were able to get a babysitter for the evening so that we could grab some dinner and take it up to the mountains. The Thai Food restaurant in town only had cans of coke to drink, so we got one to share. 

We usually don't drink coke, and we were surprised to see that the can had "BFF" printed on it. "Hey BFF," Ellis said to me as he showed me the can. 

I thought about that can. Is there any more accurate definition of a BFF (best friend forever) than the person you have made a life-long convenant with? I thought about the mystery of God holding us together, and I felt God was giving us a pretty special encouragement that evening.

We decided to take a cheesy picture of both of us holding the "BFF" can. 

We needed to be back home by 8:30pm to relieve the babysitter, so we decided to try and get a short hike in first. We looked in our trail book and chose a new hike called "North Marshall." 

I think I read and re-read the directions about five times as we approached the trail. "Do you know where we are going?," Ellis asked. "Yep!," I said. 

We came to the AT trailpost at the end of the parking lot and saw that we needed to turn left or right. We turned right.

You may notice the sentence in the photo above with the word "left" printed in bold letters. Somehow I missed that detail in my multiple readings of those directions. 

Needless to say, our hike was a little disappointing...but at least we saw a pretty great sunset on the drive back down the mountain!

And that brings me to our day today. We've had a few days of such beautiful weather here, and this morning we decided it would be a great day for a family hike. We decided to try North Marshall again. This time, when we got to the trailpost at the end of the parking lot, we turned LEFT.

The trail was steep and rocky, and the kids loved it. Mac had packed a "backpack" to hike with, and he enthusiastically led the way up the trail.

Davey and I followed behind as Mac, Corrie and Daddy navigated the trail ahead. 

It was really cute how he kept peeking his head around my shoulders to see them hike.

Soon we came to neat stopping place for a snack. Mac seized the opportunity to take out his "telescope" from his backpack and survey the land.

Ellis took Mac and Corrie one at a time up to the top of the rock. They loved the view and the adventure. I loved them coming back down safely. 

A short while later we came to the summit of our hike. It was beautiful. I thought about the unfortunate turn Ellis and I had taken on our anniversary that caused us to miss this wonderful hike.

But as I looked at the stunning view and the kids having so much fun with us on such a beautiful day, I felt pretty sure that everything had turned out just right. 

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

-Colossians 1:17