My 17th Birthday!!

Yesterday was my 17th birthday, and I had an awesome day! We got up early and did all the chores before our friends, the K's, came over. Around 8:15, we left the valley and headed up north toward Prescott. Arriving at Lynx Lake around 11:30, we all jumped out of the car...glad to stretch our legs! (Let me just say that the car ride up was a little noisy...considering we had five teenage girls in the car I was in!) As we walked around the corner and came upon the lake, everyone caught their breath. The water was surrounded with forest and the clouds above were reflecting!! The pictures don't really do the beauty justice...

We rented paddle boats at first, but upon finding out how difficult they were to manage, we exchanged them for canoes. After about 1 1/2 hours on the lake, Kailey, Macie, Brooke, and I all went up and left Anna, Sabrina, Hope, and Jessie in the canoes. We started getting lunch ready (my dad grilled amazing hamburgers!), and from up at the grill, we could hear the girls on the lake screaming and laughing. By the time they came in, they were soaked from head to toe from splashing eachother with the canoe oars (immature.......or not?!?).

There were many amazing creatures, including this HUGE tarantula-like spider that had everyone ooing and aahing and taking pictures.

Anna, Brooke and I hiked all the way around the lake (over 2 miles) and then when we were partway around, we saw all the other girls coming towards us. We decided to try and hide from them and so we ran straight up this steep hill....and, to our shock, came out on the main highway! Sliding back down a little ways, we all laid on our backs on the face of the hill. But then, Brooke started sliding, and she grabbed my foot, which made me start sliding! We decided to abandon that plan, so we scrambled up onto the road and ran towards the parking lot. We ducked and dodged and almost got past them, but then they saw us, finally, and threw water on us!!! It was fun.

This is Brooke and I...

Then, after already hiking, canoeing, hunting for snakes, skipping rocks, fishing for crawdads, and more, we had to hike another half way around the lake because at the other end, there was a lot more shade. We were all getting really tired, and I had a blister on my ankle, but we kept laughing and making jokes the whole time. My mom came with us this time, and she took some pictures of us along the trail.

We like this one cause of the reflections in the water

It went back and forth between sunny and overcast. The high was around 82 degrees, and it was just GORGEOUS!!!

Don't ask me what Jessie, Sabrina, and Macie are doing...I don't know :)

When we made it to the other side, there was a really cool little sand bar and we all gratefully took off our shoes and buried our toes in the sand. It was an amazing feeling! Our feet hurt, and we were so glad to get our shoes off and the sand felt really good on them. We also waded in the water which was freezing cold by now! (This was around 6:00 pm)

On the sand bar, we contemplated trying to build a standing pyramid.......

...and after much trial and error, we succeeded!....

...but decided that kneeling ones were much easier!!!

As it got dark, we all gathered around, and Mr. K and my dad did a really neat Bible study. They were reading Psalms and found the verse about how God's thoughts towards us are more than the sand in the world. And, since we were sitting on sand, we all tried to count the grains and got nowhere. Pretty amazing!

After that, we sang praise songs for a long time. It was so powerful with the sun setting over the lake, and all of the wildlife sounds getting quieter and quieter and us all singing. It made it really hard to leave, but we were really tired.

I am so grateful that God has brought the K's into our life right now. They have been a blessing to our family, and I am really looking forward to getting to know them better!!!

G'night!
Lisa