A Week Out West

I was supposed to go with Mom and Dad to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse tonight. Instead, I'm waiting in my hotel room for a phone call from Guatemala to finalize plans for next month's trip. I thought I'd post a summary of the past few days, but then I realized, "How do you summarize a week of memories and unforgettable moments?" How do you describe one of the best worship services on a Sunday morning in a small town in Idaho, the peaceful setting of an agrarian community, the feeling upon seeing those snow-covered rocky sentinels surrounding a placid mountain lake, the sounds of solitude when the only visible man-made thing is the trail in front of you, or the wonder of a myriad of different bubbling waters erupting from the ground?
There's something about being among such grandiose creations that calms the worries in your soul and causes you to realize that your problems and fears are trivial in the grand scheme of life. It has been a joyful week of picking up all those little pieces of my life that have gotten lost on the wayside the past few years and remembering to savor the small surprises found in every day.
I thought I'd share a few pictiures from the past week:

Magic Valley Christian College

The site of the building where my dad used to live at MVCC in the quaint and dying town of Albion, Idaho.

Caution: Slow Moving Vehicles

One of our many encounters with wildlife while at Yellowstone. At last count, we'd seen buffalo, elk, big horn sheep, buffalo, swans, bald eagles, buffalo, black bear, grizzly cubs, buffalo, geese, yellow-bellied marmots, ground squirrels, and numerous species of birds. Did I mention that we saw buffalo?


The Great Divide

Yes, that's snow in the background! It was freezing cold most of our visit which sent me scrambling to the store for a hat and wearing every bit of semi-warm clothing I'd brought (the weather man said it'd be 60 degrees-can't trust weathermen.)

Clepsydra Geyser

One of the many wonders of our nation's first national park.

Grand Tetons

This picture was taken from Jackson Lake. It certainly doesn't portray the imcomprable beauty of these lofty peaks.


What can I say? The West is a beautiful place. I wonder if they'll need an MD in a few years?