Ten ideal years together

As we continued in the van from South Dakota across Wyoming to Colorado, Paul was excited to see trains

and every time he sees a motorcycle, he reminds us that when he grows up he ideally will be a motorcycle rider. 

Yes, this campsite in Colorado really was idyllic. As I made dinner (which somehow doesn't seem like a chore when we're camping), I had this view of the boys skipping rocks into the sunset lake. In the quietness, I also overheard some of the boys' math and faith instruction about ripples from their ideal dad.

Do you think Alps Mountaineering could use this ideal photo as an advertisement? 

Micah's ideal dinner is Ramen Noodles.

The fact that the Estes Park rodeo parade was beginning just after we happened to arrive there was an ideal surprise "anniversary gift" for us! 

Going grocery shopping and buying fun stuff like buffalo meat was way more ideal than spending the money at restaurants. However, the big smiles in this picture show how quickly we recovered from the biggest public temper tantrum of Paul's life while we were in the store. The majesty of the Rocky Mountains might have a way of facilitating humble reconciliation.

I love my hikers! I realize that I am not in heaven yet, so I can't truly call life ideal, but I sure think that living with these four guys is pretty great most of the time!

We didn't find any caribou on our "caribou ranch" hike, but we got to see pretty aspen trees and

beautiful wildflowers. Thankfully, we got back to the van before it poured on us.

Rocky Mountains, meet Micah; Micah, meet the Rocky Mountains. 

The romance wasn't lost on Paul when Anthony explained that he brought me here on our honeymoon ten years ago.  Paul thought Red Rocks looked like a giant pancake. (Yes, I've been known to make strawberry pancakes on Valentine's Day.) A concert kept us hopeless romantics from being able to show the boys around.

Call us fair-weather campers, but hail during this night sent us rolling to a hotel next to the Bronco's stadium.

Since we didn't want to tag along with that storm across the country, we decided to go to Winter Park, which was ideal, because there was a lot of fun free stuff to do. The boys spent countless hours in this skate park. For the record, I was really impressed with the kindness and politeness of the middle school boys who were skateboarding the half-pipe.

Check out this photo, Tyler! Ideally, all public parks would have climbing walls.

I made buffalo burgers, grilled asparagus and cut watermelon while the boys climbed that wall over and over again. I consider it the culinary pinnacle of our first 10 years. Even with the rain, it's all about ideal ambiance.

Our new vocabulary word was cabriolet, since we got to ride it a lot. The background of this photo shows the sad impact of the mountain pine beetles killing lodgepole pines. If Paul has told you something about our trip that you didn't understand, he was probably telling you all about the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

Sam had to miss out on some of the scootering and climbing fun, but he seemed to think these xylophones that were twice his size were ideal.

These two put a whole lot of miles on their scooters, since there were such ideal paths.

Doesn't everyone's ideal tenth wedding anniversary include going on a free family "date" to hear amazing stories from a mountain man trapper?

It sure was nice of Winter Park to put on a super fun concert for us to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary! It had been a LONG time since we had held up the camera to take a picture of ourselves. Maybe it's because of the wrinkles that show just how very much we have both smiled over the last 10 years. :) :)

"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine!" -Song of Songs 6:3  I know that people told me that I would come to love my beloved even more after that ideally beautiful day ten years ago, but WOW. I love my ideal husband now SO much more than I thought I could!