Today is our 9th wedding anniversary. We woke up this morning and reflected on the past 9 years and the 7 and a half years prior to April 1, 1995. It is difficult to fathom how much our lives have changed and how grateful we are to be where we are right now! Life is amazing!

We are staying at Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area. This is a wonderful park, with large, clean, paved, fully serviced campsites. We are surrounded by huge pine trees so getting the internet may have proved difficult, however it is the best signal I have yet to receive. The satellite TV is another story but we decided we watch too much television anyway, so we'll do without. Here, they are entering the fifth year of a drought and the lake is well below its norm. The wildfire season has already started, way early, and there are two fires already underway, fortunately not near here. It is a comfortable temperature of 22C (72F) here today with a few clouds, a great day to go for a bike ride and a hike, which we did. There were dozens of elk tracks on our hike and the ranger informed us that they travel through here nightly. We have seen some interesting birds, native to these parts but not something we have seen before, a couple of unusual looking squirrels but no elk...yet.

We've chosen this day to spend here enjoying our beautiful surroundings and relaxing to celebrate our years together. We know how fortunate we are and never lose sight of that. We have healthy, productive children, we are both healthy and able bodied enough to enjoy this life, we have terrific families and wonderful friends as well as each other. Does it get any better than that?