Battery Recharge

Tuesday morning, July 5th, Andrea and I took off for two days of soul recharging.  Our first stop was a session at the Pocatello temple.  So, so good.

I recently learned the term, "faith-friend"-- meaning someone who you can freely talk to about your faith journey, how you are growing, and what you are learning.  It is someone who listens and shares and helps you be better.  I am so thankful for my faith-friends and Andrea is definitely one of the best.

We grabbed some lunch at CostaVida and headed up to West Yellowstone for a trail ride.  It's been a long time since I'd gone horseback riding. 

The moment of truth-- can I get up on the horse?  Happy to say, I was successful on the first attempt.  We must celebrate life's little victories:)

Andrea's horse was named Blaze.  Ironically, he was not very speedy.

My horse was named Slim, and unironically was always stopping to try to eat. 

A selfie with Slim.  

We had a grand time!  We were right behind the trail guide-- a former bull rider.  So we had a good time asking him lots of questions about how the rodeo circuits work and the motivations behind riding bulls.  He was a good sport and entertained all our questions.

After a bit of perusing the shops of West Yellowstone, we enjoy a BBQ dinner and then Playmill's production of Bright Star.  It's one of my very favorite shows.

Wednesday morning we got up and headed to Island Park for kayaking down the Snake River.  

It's hard to put into words how much I enjoyed this adventure.  We took our sweet time and spent three hours soaking in the beautiful surroundings, the sounds of nature, the perfect temperatures, talking and laughing and marveling at how good God is.  It just filled me up.

Are you kidding me?  Take me back!

So there we were, paddling ourselves down the river.  We took a little turn, thinking it would meet back up with the main river.  But it didn't.

The little river turned to the left instead of the right and we came upon this little beauty.  Admittedly we were a little freaked out.  Thankfully the moose wanted nothing to do with us and we paddled our little selves back up the river and went on our merry way.

This is an adventure I hope to repeat sooner rather than later.  

We ended the trip the way we started it--with a session at the Brigham City temple, followed by dinner at Maddox.  It was only two days, but man, this trip did the trick.  I came home feeling refreshed and recharged.  I'm so thankful to Andrea for her friendship and adventurous spirit and passion to pursue the best things in life.