Mountain life

I grew up in the city. We always had sidewalks, fenced in backyards, close neighbors and if we wanted to go to the store, it was like 5 min. away. Moving to Mariposa was very different for me! Well, when we first got married, we lived in town, so it didn't seem too far away from everything, but a few years ago, we moved into this beautiful new home, 30 min. from town, and I love it out here, except for one thing...we are so far away from the city (over an hour to the big city)! We only go to the city about once a month, so you better not forget anything that you need for that month or you are out! It has definitely taught me to plan ahead and be organized, so that I am thankful for, but it would be so nice to live in the city again. BUT, the longer I live out here, the more it is growing on me. We have a beautiful rushing (depending on the time of year) river at the bottom of our property, and if you walk out the back door, you can hear it. What a peaceful sound.
Another benefit of living here is that I can take all my kids out for a walk (even tho the hills KILL me) and there are very few cars out on the road!

I have to remind myself daily to be thankful for where I live. It really is a beautiful place and I do feel very blessed that I am able to stay at home with my children every day. As you can imagine, going outside is an event these days, but I do try to get them outside when the weather is nice. Their favorite thing to do is to go down to the church and "explore". They walk all over that parking lot and we usually always end up down by the river watching the water rushing by.
Here are the girls at the river:

Here is Lucas hanging out on my back. He is SUCH a good sport!

....Emma is getting very good at her picture taking these days. ;)

Here is a picture to show some of the cool things that we find. This is actually in our front yard where we had a tree fall. These ladybugs fascinate me! I need to do some research to see why they gather like that. Soooo cool!