Bighorn Mountains

Hey everyone! I hope you are all enjoying this Spring weather, I know we are. I thought I would be writing this weeks blog from Washington, but I’m sitting here at Starbucks in Wyoming. We had planned to visit my family and surprise my sister’s kids last weekend, but our trip got postponed a couple weeks. Since Erich had three days off we decided to make the most of it and go on another explorcation (exploration/vacation =).  We found a cabin in the Bighorn Mountains for the same price as a campsite and decided to go adventuring. I have to admit, I was more than a little nervous about making reservations for a cabin without actually seeing it. The pictures online didn’t show much. We were thrilled to arrive and find the most beautiful piece of heaven we got to call home for the weekend. The kids quickly claimed their bunks and took off exploring. Jake and Asia begged Erich to teach them how to chop wood for the stove and I’m pretty sure Jake spent all his free time filling up the wood shed. Cooper (our family dog) was in heaven, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so happy. Biggest yard ever. Micah spent his time climbing on the logs and boulders around the fire pit and River loved hanging out in her normal sized bunk. No one even seemed to mind not having internet, running water, or using an outhouse. Since the trip was last minute, we didn’t have a lot of time to plan, so we decided to explore the forest service roads around the cabin, hoping to get closer to those cool rock cliffs you see behind our family photo above. Every turn we took brought a new view, all of them beautiful. We ran into some hikers who told us about a canyon nearby that was supposedly the coolest thing they’d found in the Bighorns. We decided to go check it out. They were right. I think it was called Crazy Woman Canyon and it WAS amazing. We had to do some four-wheeling in the truck with the mud and snow, but that just made it all the more fun. The next day we drove over the mountain pass, through another amazing canyon and then visited the world’s largest natural hot springs. After we got back to the cabin and had dinner, we decided to let the older three kids ride in the back of the truck with Cooper while we explored some more of the forest service roads. I’m pretty sure they had the time of their lives. Packing up the next day was so sad! I think we could have stayed there forever. What is it about being in the wilderness that makes a person feel so alive? I wish I could hold on to that feeling every day. There must be a spiritual connection there. Unplugged, undistracted, and disconnected from what we call the “real world.” Makes me wonder what that even means. Sometimes I wonder if “progress” is actually the opposite. What if all this progress is actually causing us to digress? Do all these conveniences actually enable us to love other people better? Or do they distract us from the people right in front of us? Have we, as the human race actually improved or were we better neighbors back when life was simpler? I admit, not having a phone signal caused an inner disagreement in my heart. Part of me felt cut off and the other part felt set free. Did not having my iPhone actually cause me to be disconnected from my world or did it force me to connect more deeply with the people who ARE my world? Maybe I’m rambling, but this weekend was therapeutic for me and I would highly encourage you all to try unplugging for a weekend once in awhile. Wander a little. Don’t make plans or schedules. Just wander, explore, unplug, and enjoy each other.

This weeks life lessons: progress is overrated, hot springs stink, the wilderness is wild.