summer vacation part II

In making the final edits to Chica's Summer Vacation essay, I forgot to mention one aspect of our trip. Maybe it's because I didn't take any pictures of it. :( Bummer, huh?

But don't you fret bloggers, because we have it on VIDEO! That's what we do. If our firstborn daughter so much as blinks we have it documented somehow. Granted, this video doesn't hold a candle to the last video we posted. (I'm not sure if we can ever top that.) But you do see us fly down the mountainside. The good news is, the closer you make it to the end (bottom?) the more you're able to see Chica's face. The first ride down she rode with Dan. The wind blew every last hair on her head straight up and her mouthed gaped open in a wide, toothy grin. The second trip down she was a little more subdued.

Enjoy!

alpine slide from Rachel Hinton on Vimeo.

chica's summer vacation

This past week my dad took our little family to the mountains. Danny and I went to the Grand Tetons on our honeymoon and we couldn't wait to head back west for a little getaway. With Chica's school starting in a few weeks, I figured now is the perfect time to outline her "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" essay. The pictures should get her some bonus points.

On her summer vacation Chica....

flew across the country on an airplane with her Mom


and her Dad.


She took several walks around the resort.


She waited for the shuttle,


and tried her hand as a tour guide.


She rode a chair lift up a mountain,


and hiked to a lookout point.


Thank goodness there were notes along the way, because her mother couldn't recall what the Continental Divide was.


She checked out a rainbow,


and went rock climbing.


She took her new found love of extreme sports on a bike ride down a mountain.




Her Grandpa Ken and Uncle Jackson were there too!


She played on a playground,


played on another playground,


and perused local shops on Main Street.


There was no snow on the mountains for skiing, so she did the next best thing. Turns out you save a ton of money on lift tickets this way!

Then she came home and took a 16 hour nap. Surely she dreamed about the mountains.

hot dog blues

You know what happens when you're tired, overwhelmed, hormonal and home-sick?


You cry over a picture of your favorite niece eating a hot dog.


And then you scour the fridge for a hot dog to make yourself feel better. :)

chica out

We're not in Kansas anymore bloggers. (I was about to call you all "Totos" but refrained to avoid hurt feelings.) We're having a grand time and will fill you in soon!

Bye for now!

he walks with me

I love this picture of the Chica I took this past weekend. It embodies her spirit through and through.

Independent. Inquisitive. Dexterous. She's a mover and a shaker, that one.

But it also reminds me of that sweet old hymn, "In the Garden." I can't remember when I first heard that song. I know I was a child, because I loved to picture walking side by side with God, chatting it up.

Why is it when grow up we decide God is too busy to bother with little old us? Too lofty to listen and too swamped to stroll? I don't know the answer. While I go ponder on this/ask Dan/infuse "tarry" into my everyday vocabulary, I'll leave you with the lyrics while the smell of old hymnals and itch of Sunday School clothes come flooding back.

In the Garden
I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear the son of God discloses
And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own
And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known

He speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing
And the melody that he gave to me within my heart is ringing

I'd stay in the garden with him though the night around me is falling
But He bids me go through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling

battle of the remote

A conversation from earlier today:

Me: "Dang, ESPN again?"

Silence

Me: "Did you know if you were King Henry VIII and I made you change the channel, you could have me beheaded?"

Dan: "Yeah."

Silence

Me: "Does that make you wish you were King Henry VII?"

Dan: "Yes."

Me: "What??"

Dan: "But I wouldn't want you beheaded, I would just want to keep my channel on."

Point taken.

wild slide woman

While we're on the subject of slides, this one happened to be part of the garden exhibit as well.

It was the cutest thing, built right into a little hill you had to climb to get to the top. She got the hang of it pretty quickly and a couple of times she went so fast she flew right off the end of it and landed in the mulch.

(Check out that hair whipping in the wind!)

Because we're those parents and because she's our first and only child, we also have a video of this momentous occasion. Sorry it's a little Blair Witch-esque. It was shot on our top of the line phone camera.

Have a great Tuesday!