Silver Mountain, Idaho

Gondola ride,  Mountaintop playground, 3 mile hike, sleepy babes, natural high

Silver Mountain, Idaho is a small ski mountain with a gorgeous resort at the base of 2 mountains that are covered in ski trails, mountain biking trails in the off season, and the resort even has an indoor waterpark!?  It's a year round adventure mecca.

http://www.silvermt.com/pdf/silvertrailmapweb.pdf
(I'm posting this photo to entice all of my ski loving friends who may want to come and enjoy this snowy paradise and stay with us!!!)  73 trails, 1,600 acres of terrain, 2,200 vertical and more than 300 inches of snow annually...WOW!

We went to check it out in September, before the weather became too cold.  The mountain bikers were all over the mountain.  Adam and I were pretty envious...can't go mountain biking with a toddler on your shoulders...but I think they have child care at the resort for the day, so parents can go biking, skiing, hike around or just hang out at the resort for a few hours.  We will be back!!!

Anyway, we had a great time hiking around.  We decided to do a loop, but weren't aware of how long it was.  It turned out to be 3 miles long!  By the time we reached halfway, both boys were sleeping.  It turned into a fun nature hike with the kids, to a rigorous speed hike to the end.  Carrying a 30 lb toddler and 18 lb baby while on a mountain hike...I'll just say, it's a good workout.
But it was gorgeous!  And we enjoyed our time outside.

 Silver Mountain gondola ride

 Chipmunk

Delicate Morning

To follow such an intimate post on the birth of my son,  I decided to touch on something soothing, delicate and lovely.   I think it parallels the introduction of life to our new baby.

I found this excerpt in my 'writings and musings' folder.  It was written while I was in Argentina, a new wife but not yet a mother; it was a moment of gratefulness that I'm so glad I documented.
Those mornings changed my life.  Here is a photo of the sheep resting under a shady tree from the morning sun.  Another from a cold winter morning as they traveled down the hill to graze.

 
-->

The early morning is my favorite time of day.  I stretch my legs, face the chill, and step out into a new day.  The gorgeous world that we live in, rely on; such a spiritual place for me.  I stand in the dew stained grass, take in deep breaths of the fresh mountain air, and look out over the sheep grazing as the sun comes up and over the mountains in the distance.  The light hits the snow on the mountains in the most delicate way.  As all mornings should be; delicate.  A calming tranquility lives and loves me in the early morning mountain air.

The early mornings are a time for peace, a time for prayer, a time for me and the mountains to exist together, without a noise, or a distraction, other than an occasional greeting from the sheep.  I love the early mornings because the earth has rested all night, as have I, without a soul to bother her, because up here she sleeps so soundly.  The world is completely dark and quiet as the sun goes down.  The stars are at their brightest, as if the world is dreaming so deep and the deeper the dream, the brighter the stars twinkle.  What a polite sun, to slowly let the world below adapt to her rays.  I face the bright light and close my eyes in the most thankful moments of existence.  Thankful for so many things, too many to name.  I love the early mornings, I am the first one awake. I love the early mornings because I am greeted with such a calming and delicate air, that to begin my day this way, I am thankful until the sun goes down when I dream of the next delicate morning.