Soft, fluffy, cold, lovely!

*Ah* An hour and a half of clear skies, white trails, peaceful conversations, crisp air, and the occasional friendly hikers/skiers makes for a terrific way to start my saturday. *sigh* Talk about boosting the "happy" and the "energetic" factors of my brain... a great walk in the woods certainly remedies my dullness of spirit. I have always been this way, but i guess i forgot for a little while and let other priorities take the place of woodsy walks. Here is my mental note, a little reminder to myself that i need to get out in the beauty of God's creation a lot more than i have of late!

*sigh* isn't it LOVELY? These photos do not do justice to the glorious view of snow on conifer trees, silhouetted against a blue winter sky. The photos cannot convey the children in their excitement as they find tracks in the snow and then discuss what critter could have left them. Then of course there is the excessive snow eating, which i did not photograph because I try to discourage it when we are too close to public places or dog-walking areas... The older two can pick clean snow, but Mercy has NO CONCEPT of clean or dirty... I discovered her eating a chunk of snow from the schoolyard yesterday, it was laced with leaves and dirt... ik.

three cheers for snow walking!! And maybe someday soon... cross country skiing! (we passed a lady and her daughter skiing on the trail we had just completed, and after talking with them for a while I left with a great excitement to do some family skiing in our future. The mom said that they started with their kids all over the age of 4, and now that they have grown older, she has wonderful skiing companions. how lovely!)