Beauty Captured Summer 2015

I thought I’d share some fun photos with you from our vacation the last two weeks.  It’s been so long since I’ve posted any photos, but photography is still such a love of mine....hopefully in this next season I’ll be able to do more of it!  

How could you not love this crazy face :)  He’s such a goofball.  Our US Vacation gave us some HOT weather - so I’m pretty sure this was in the middle of volleyball/ladderball/waterfights.  

Some of my mother in law’s flowers and garden.  

If you live in the US or Canada, you’ve probably seen these red breasted black birds that sit on cattails.  I think they’re just gorgeous, but have yet to capture a good shot of them.  We were on a bike ride for this one, and as soon as I tried to get a better focus on him, off he went.   I’m determined to get a better shot sometime this summer!  So, this isn’t a good shot of the bird, but it’s a pretty one of the farm fields.  

My husband actually captured this shot of the bee on the delphinium...wow what great colours and bokeh in the background hey?  

Gorgeous skies and sunsets...probably primarily due to the forest fires in Canada blowing into the US.   

Our older son lounging around, we had so many people there that we had to set up a tent outside so people would have enough space to eat.   :) 

Then we headed to the Canadian Rockies.  We love to hike and bike there, so this was our first morning hike, a place called Heart Creek Trail, an easy one that we hadn’t done before.  Our younger son LOVES to move rocks in streams and create new pathways, so he was in his element.  

You know, sometimes rocks can be pretty too! 

My favourite view in the world.  It had been drizzling, and there was a lot of haze, but I still love the effect of the mountains and sky.  

This is the view we wake up to and go to sleep to.  It’s called the Three Sisters mountain range.  Big sister on top, Middle Sister, and then little sister on the bottom left.  This is how they look in the morning....

And this is how they look in the evening.  So majestic.  I experience the vastness and goodness of God every time I’m in the mountains.  It is the most renewing place I know.  

We did another hike at Johnston Canyon, which we often do, but this year we went all the way to the Ink Pots.  It’s 7.2 km up and 7.2km down, with a 215 m (700 foot) rise in elevation.   A more challenging hike, especially on a day that was 30 + degrees Celcius.  So worth it though.  In the early part of the hike, you walk along a gorge/canyon with a river, two waterfalls, catwalks and forest.  My son’s fitbit said we climbed 150 flights of stairs that day.  

This is the upper falls from two views, at the base...

And then above the falls. 

My goodness the crows were enormous on the mountain!  This puffy guy in front and his buddy were so vocal and he was probably close to 18 inches tall!  

This is the higher part of the hike after the waterfalls where you head to a wide open valley in the mountains and these mineral fed ink pots that take on vivid colour.  What a beautiful spot.  

Here’s a pano shot of the valley and the Ink Pots.  My boys were really tired after finally getting up there.  (Ok, ok, we were pretty tired too :)

Aren’t those pools so beautiful in colour?  

This is the meadow at the Ink Pots.  I love when mountain hikes open up into beautiful wide open spaces like this.  

And finally us at the stream that ends up travelling down the mountain to feed the waterfalls and become quite a raging river.  It was nice to put your feet in to a cold stream as a break from the heat of the day before you had to head back down again. :) 

Hope you’ve enjoyed a little photo-tour through our vacation!  

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Beauty Captured Summer 2015