oooo-aaaah!

oooo-aaaah is the "ranch cry" or the sign of lost valley's western hospitality. not that you really ever forget that after a season of working here, but i didn't have any particular reason to say it without people thinking i was crazy since i left here last september. today is actually the one year anniversary of when i first left the valley. wow, i had NO idea what all the Lord had in store for me. it's been quite a year, as most of you know. if you want to hear more about frontier, ask me- i probably won't post too much about it on here anymore. i wanted to post some pictures of my vacation with my family the week between leaving frontier and starting at lost valley. it was a really good week, just kind of strange. we stayed in estes park for the week, adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park. we spent half the week in the park and the other half doing other things- hanging out in town, going to denver for a rockies game, things like that. it was restful as far as sleep goes, but not mentally as restful as i had hoped. also, i tried to start processing the year at frontier and kind of feel like i got nowhere, aside from really feeling like i was finished at frontier and moving on. i arrived at lost valley just over a week ago on the 29th. it's been really good but kind of weird to be back. i'm excited for this fall and looking forward to settling into our more normal fall schedule. last week we mainly did projects and cleaned cabins and i started waitressing again friday night. it's come back to me a lot faster than i thought it would, which has been a really big blessing. there are a couple new systems in place so it's a process learning those but thankfully, starting this afternoon, it'll slow way down and i'll be able to really concentrate on learning those things well. some of what's been weird has been remembering and reflecting on last summer. in some ways, i feel like i'm in a completely different place. last summer, this place seemed so hectic and i remember feeling like i was in a fishbowl- there were always so many people around and it was always kind of loud. part of that, i'm sure, had to do with the increased #s of guests and living in the attic, right in the center of the ranch. i also think that the stage of my life was so different- i had just graduated from college and was missing so many friends, my heart wasn't settled and i hadn't really gone through any major transitions in my life. last summer was a HUGE transition and just when i finally started to feel settled here, i left to go to frontier. this last year has been such a learning and stretching experience and i think that by returning here, i'm beginning to see how much i've changed. this place now represents so much peace. i don't feel like i'm crammed into a fishbowl, instead i feel really settled and content. sure, parts of being back are hard- change always is. i miss frontier and the interns and all the good things about BV, and i miss my friends from last summer. walking around here and seeing all these places that look the same but aren't filled with a lot of the same people is a little tough. but in all that, i've realized the most important thing- how good and faithful God has been in my life, especially this last year. while i miss my friends that were here, i'm so excited about the people that ARE here now. i've realized a lot of the gems that were here last summer but i didn't get the chance to know well, and i think i'll know them better after this fall than i knew others after a summer because the fall provides so much more time to be intentional and i've learned how to be more intentional. a really big lesson of this last year that was really manifested in this summer was the faithfulness of the Lord and how He redeems things and already, i can see how He's redeeming more parts of my own life and how clear His faithfulness is in this place. the contrast between here and frontier is showing me so much of what He's been teaching me at frontier. it's a beautiful paradox. alright, next post- vacation pictures hopefully. i'll leave you with my favorite.