{"id":2124,"date":"2013-07-08T13:55:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T13:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paytonandgrace.com\/?p=2124"},"modified":"2013-07-08T13:55:11","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T13:55:11","slug":"up-in-the-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/2013\/07\/08\/up-in-the-woods\/","title":{"rendered":"Up in the Woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fire<\/a>Just this past Monday as we were finally winding our way up the pass and into the mountains when we saw something that made our breath catch in our throats. It was the sight of a thin trail of smoke coming from the trees. This was the second time I’d seen something like it this in the past month.<\/p>\n

If you didn’t happen to hear, Colorado was once again on fire this summer. Actually, there are still quite a few wildfires burning throughout the state (and many parts of the US for that matter). The Black Forest Fire burned for quite a while just north of Colorado Springs and left 511 homes destroyed in it’s path, topping last years’ Waldo Canyon fire total of 346 just before its 1 year anniversary. That’s a lot of people’s homes and a lot of sadness.<\/p>\n

\"fire<\/a>This particular fire seemed to be small, but we were still glad to see a fire crew headed up the rocky terrain with their chainsaws. My dad and I had just been talking about how God directs even the lightning strikes (Job 37), which is quite the thought to allow your mind to marinade in–that’s another topic for another day! But on our way back several hours later, the fire had made its way up the mountainside. The news later reported that it was under control. This also reminded me of James’ words: “So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” So, even this small bit of fire and smoke had potential to do large amounts of damage!<\/p>\n

Earlier in June we had been wondering if our favorite hiking\/camping spot had been burned by the 500 acres consumed by another wildfire a couple of weeks previous. We were blessed to find it green, teeming with bugs and flowers, surprisingly muggy even! The bear seemed to be alive and well.\"bear<\/a>I had so much fun! I have a lovely collection of scrapes and bruises from all of the underbrush, felled trees and an assortment of pokey shrubs I encountered to prove it.
\n\"duck<\/a>\"over<\/a>Payton did a good job catching all of my expressions as I tried to maneuver the terrain. Bad idea to wear Chacos–all they did was get rocks and mud in them and allow sticks to stab my toes! But, wearing socks and shoes on a hike seems wrong, so I did it anyway. \"jump<\/a>\"on<\/a>My favorite part was taking a nap in the hammock in the middle of the trees! I was tired after hiking a few hours, so this seemed perfect. The photos don’t do it justice. Hot vanilla pines let off their smell as the sunlight flickered off the aspen leaves. I felt like I might have seen a bit of Eden in that moment.\"hammock<\/a><\/p>\n

\"hammock<\/a>\"payton<\/a>We were thankful for a time to get up into the woods and enjoy our Maker’s wonders! And hopefully in about a month we’ll get to enjoy the small, berry-shaped wonders that will be ripe! I can hardly wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just this past Monday as we were finally winding our way up the pass and into the mountains when we saw something that made our breath catch in our throats. It was the sight of a thin trail of smoke coming from the trees. This was the second time I’d seen something like it this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1068,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71321],"tags":[997,1066,76011,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-2124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-summertime","7":"tag-adventure","8":"tag-colorado","9":"tag-exploring","10":"tag-pictures","11":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1068"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/payton-downing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}