Day 94 - Last Sunday and Vigilante

At 7 am this morning we hear a knock on our bedroom door and it is Christina fully dressed in long sleeves and pants raring and ready to go do something. At first I had to process what day it was and be thankful that it was not 6 am. Since the rest of the house was still sleeping I took her and we went and picked up donuts from "The Donut Hole" which is a small donut shop in Helena (it's only real donut shop).  The thing I hadn't counted on was that when I went out to leave I had to come back and get a long sleeve shirt because it was 45 degrees.  I still haven't quite made the shift that it is quickly becoming fall/winter here.

After we got home she and I had a kind of mini date just the two of us in the kitchen and then everyone else started creeping in slowly one by one.  This is our last Sunday here so we all got ready for church and headed out to Hannaford Street Bible Church for the last time.  We made sure we were a few minutes early so that we could visit and hear the pre-worship music.  As always the music was great.  John, their associate minister, preached this morning and had a good message on what our walk with the Lord should look like and how our walk should be different and recognizable by non-Christians. They should see a reflection of Jesus and his love in our walk. Once church was over we ended up spending more time than usual visiting with our new found friends and saying good bye. We had a hard time finding Christina because she  and one of her friends were playing hide and seek and somehow didn't tell us we were the ones that were suppose to be looking for her. We found her and were on our way.

Once we got home we had a delicious meal and then the real work for the day began. If not once but a hundred times we were given lots of things we could do on our last Sunday and lots of suggestions from the kids.  After a brief rest period we decided to head out towards Vigilante to possibly hike and play in Trout Creek.  Oddly enough this is one of the first things we did in the summer so it is fitting that we end it that way as well.  So we piled all our stuff in the car and headed out. 

Just like we left it in June, the place was still beautiful with towering mountains and a nice canyon to explore.  We got out of the car and headed down the trail that led into the canyon.  The one thing I haven't mentioned is that our 7 mile hike from yesterday has taken its toll on my legs and feet. I can walk but not without pain. Still I was willing to do a short hike. I didn't realize that on this trail it took several hundred yards before we actually saw the official trail head (where there was a kiosk for information).  At that point I deteremined that maybe we should just play in the creek so we turned around and headed toward the creek.

Now this is a picturesque creek running through the mountains and apparently filled with snow melt from the feel of it.  After standing in it for a few minutes you would get out and your feet and legs would be red and numb.  Of course, that made no difference to the kids. We spent a little over an hour in the creek and had a grand time.  We finally got everyone out and washed off.

Our plan was to meet my co-worker Jean at the York Bar for dinner (to get one last really good burger).  So we ended up there about 5:30. As we approached we could see someone talking to her as she sat in her truck and it was another one of my co-workers Joel.  This whole state is very small.  We cracked up that we could run into someone at this little spot in the road restaurant in the middle of nowhere.  As always the hamburgers were delicious and we got to eat them on the deck outside which made it even better.  As we finished up Joshua and Caleb ran across the street to hike up one of the steep trails they have in York. It was  fun to watch them come down and praying that they wouldn't fall because if they did they would have rolled to the bottom.  Of course, that made Christina want to go and I made Joshua promise to only take her to a point where she could get down. He kept his promise and she got down safely.

As we went to leave the girls really wanted Gretchen to climb up part of the mountain because there were some fake bears up there and they wanted just one more picture of her with the bears. So she and all the kids climbed up and I got their picture.

Once again we are so thankful to have had the opportunity to come here and see such wonderful sites that God has created and enjoy them.