JESUS MUST HAVE A LOT OF MONEY

Sierra was inhaling some of her father's wisdom, and spouting off a bit of her own, while hiking up a beautiful woodland path. She was memorized by her surrounding. She kept exclaiming, "I am so happy to be in the beautiful day." Nate often sites that his girls hunger for nature as much as he does and that eventually I will have to surrender my desire to be a hermit or be left behind. This was my first attempt at an outdoor excursion for a full day with both girls.

I was in awe of the beauty of the woods. A peaceful slow moving river sauntered beside the path. Limestone rock and bright green trees ran up the hills on both sides of the journey. Tree leaves hung like canopies over the path keeping the heat from us.

Nate took Sierra down by the river and gave her an enotomology lecture. He would over turn rocks along the river bed and hunt out assorted life forms in various life stages. At one point he even pried a fly larvae from its home. I was slightly grossed out but Sierra loved ever minute of it and met each new bug with, "Oh,wow!"

Occationally during our trek, a low rumble would sound in the distance and grow louder and louder until the sound of rushing wind would pierce our ears and a large locomotive would come barreling down the canyon.

Madison was content to sit on the shore of the river and scavenger for empty snack wrapping. (She loves paper.)

Sierra was content to continue over turning rocks and discover more bugs. She found this earthworm under a rock in the river. She carried it around and said she was going to take it home with her and put it on her snuggly pillow and read it stories, but before long the worm was torn in half. She asked me what was going to happen to the worm. I explained the worm was an asexual organism and would just turn into two worms. She got really excited about that. Eventually she loved the poor worm to death, literally. She was worried when it stopped wiggling and decide to lay it on a rock, so it could sleep. She suggested that perhaps the poor thing was tired. Perhaps.

Sierra asked while we were hiking, "Mom, did Jesus create all the leaves, and all the trees, and all the bugs and all the rocks and all rivers?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Wow mom he must have a lot of money," which made me laugh.

On our way out of the gorge the cool breeze blew softly around us. I felt my spirit grow happier with every footstep and I sensed maybe my obstinance was a facade. Maybe a part of me also longs for nature.

If you want to visit this beautiful place, you can google Little Juanita River. I saw some boys tubing the river and it looked like a blast. The river is feed by a cold spring, so beware tubing is an August experience.