Good and glorious Autumn morning to you, my sweet Siestas! Would you believe that it is actually under 112 degrees here in Houston? Everyone in the city is in such a great mood. Even at a four-way stop, drivers wave for you to go right ahead and turn in front of them. No one even tried to run me – the leading cause of road rage in America – off the road for my slow driving. The first few days of cool after a long, hot, humid summer in Houston are like Heaven on earth. All 3 million of us are so happy.
I’ve been on an excursion since I last talked to you. My man and I had planned a four-day getaway to our favorite place on the planet for this past weekend but the evening before our flight out, he had to cancel over a work issue. I was heartsick. My son-in-law Curtis felt so sorry for me that he told Amanda he wanted her to book a flight and join me. We couldn’t find available seats on Thursday so I went ahead and she joined me on Friday.
The Teton Mountains are my happy place. Years ago a group contacted the ministry and said that if I’d come and speak, they couldn’t provide an honorarium but they’d put me up in a modest condo for a week. I’d never been to Wyoming before and I asked a well-traveled friend about whether or not he thought I should go and he answered me with one question, “Are you out of your mind?” So I went. I had one of the strangest sensations of my life when I stepped off that plane for the first time. I felt the word “home.” I still can’t explain the feeling but I get it every time I go and those visits are now way more than I can count. I wasn’t raised in the mountains so it doesn’t make sense. Don’t get me wrong. I know what beautiful looks like. I was raised in the rolling hills of Arkansas in a home perched amid the piny woods. My older sister and little brother and I practically lived in a tree house built between two tall pines by our Dad and our Papaw. When our feet touched the ground, we shaped rooms out of pine needles in our imaginary house. We never played in doors in those days. Such good memories of bag swings and beetles. I love my home State. But for some reason I have the soul of a mountain girl.
So do my daughters. As my plane began its final descent into Jackson Hole on Thursday afternoon, I – a consummate rule-keeper – longed so much for Amanda and Melissa to be with me and feel the thrill that I – yes, I – slipped out my I-phone and clicked a picture (on airplane mode) from my window seat. It was this:
Michelle had made my flight and rental car arrangements. I’m not much of a car person and usually don’t know one make from another but it was so much fun to walk out to the designated spot down the Avis aisle and discover a cobalt blue mini hummer. I didn’t get a picture of it but AJ did later in our trip. Maybe she’ll insert it here later.
I drove straight to Albertsons and got a few necessities then drove out to Teton Village and checked into a hotel. Things can be really fancy out there and art work is a pretty big deal. For some reason, though, this piece of fine art in our hotel lobby amused Amanda and me. Sorry it’s not centered better. I was getting ugly looks while taking it.
Hmmmm. A fine piece indeed.
You don’t go to the Tetons to sit in your room so as soon as I dropped my stuff off, I headed straight into Teton Park. God was so sweet to me. I was sad that our plans to spend a long weekend in the mountains together (Keith and I) had not worked out but God went out of His way to tell me He was there. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that within 20 minutes I’d seen a juvenile bear, a female moose, and several bull elk. I tried to get pictures with my cell phone but it was nearly dark and, needless to say, I couldn’t get close enough to get them to say “Cheese!”
The next morning I headed to my favorite bagel place in the area. It’s in Wilson, Wyoming and they make their bagels and stir up the cream cheese right there on the premises. They scorn toasters and hang a hand written sign on a chalkboard that says “We don’t toast our bagels. We serve them (all caps like this) FRESH.” OK then. I won’t have mine toasted. I love to get a Honey Sunflower bagel with Honey Walnut cream cheese and sit out at one of the picnic tables in the back to eat it. I took this from that spot:
I kept an eye on my watch while I ate my bagel and drank my dark roast and gave myself plenty of time to head to the airport to pick up Amanda around noon. I was the kind of happy to see her that you are when you haven’t seen your loved one for a year. It had been one day. We were hungry so we headed into town to eat at one of our favorite little restaurants. It’s called “Sweetwater” and the cranberry chicken salad sandwich on toasted raisin bread could almost give you a lump in your throat. We paid out then walked the square but weren’t really in shopping moods. The woods were calling. But, we did see these in one store and reflected on them for quite some time. There are times when the only word that comes to you is “Why?” The hand model is AJ.
We dropped Amanda’s stuff off at the hotel and headed straight to Jenny Lake. I cannot count the times I’ve hiked around that gorgeous place, often alone and other times with Amanda and Melissa (Keith is not quite as taken with hiking as we are. Maybe because I can out-last him in the altitude. He’s very athletic but I have him there. No brag. Just fact). Melissa was a dizzy mixture of happy and sad while her sister and I were in the Tetons. She’s wanted to join us so badly but couldn’t make the schedule work. She kept texting us with messages like, “Send me a pic!” with tandem feelings like, “No, don’t! Yes, do!” These spots on the hike do NOT do justice to the scene but I’ll show them to you if you’ll magnify them in your imaginations by about 100 times.
Yes, that is the Grand. She’s far more powerful in person.
It is already autumn in the Tetons.
The next day we hiked again a much longer way and had the greatest time. We love to eat at Signal Mountain Lodge after a good hike and watch the sun go down over Jackson Lake. I don’t have a picture of it because I’ve taken a thousand of them over the years but imagine it lovely. It’s main attraction is Mount Moran. On our last evening after dinner, Amanda and I decided to take a little stroll around Teton Village and see some of the houses that had been built since our last visit. We got to see a house we’d rented for Thanksgiving several years in a row way back when and also stood in front of the house where “When Godly People Do Ungodly Things” was taped. It brought back so many memories. Some good. Some painful. It’s just painful material. While we were walking (in a housing development no less) we somehow got into some mud. Amanda kind of freaked out and bolted from her shoes lest she perish in Teton quick sand. Don’t scorn her for not wearing boots at this point. We were taking a stroll through a neighborhood. Not climbing the Grand.
This is her in the aftermath before I braved the quicksand and retrieved her shoes. She looks like she did when she was about five years old in this picture.
While we were on that very walk with no expectations but to gaze upon dreamy mountain cabins, God had delights for us.
Foxes. And, yes, that close to us. It was getting really dark when I took this one and I had to enlarge it and crop it for you to get the idea. It’s not really post worthy but I might as well show it to you. They were just chillin’ at this point.
It was not the trip I had planned but it was a wonderful trip nonetheless. God was so gracious to us and the weather was spectacular, the sights restoring to our city souls. Thank you for taking a stroll back through it with us.
So, that’s my happy place. What about yours?
I love it- when we lived in AK I was tickled every time I saw wildlife (I had a moose lay down outside my bedroom window that was ground level once)! And I am grieved that shoe styles I see everyday here are migrating west- snap out of it, people!
I too tend to be drawn to the mountains. I made Ranier my happy place when I was in college in Walla Walla, I have made the Smokies my Happy place since I live in the south. A sad anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks…and my sweet Frank is taking me to the Smokies so I can have some happy days. I can’t wait to drive through Cades Cove and see the autumn foliage. Happy Tuesday and God Bless!
You make me want to go to Wyoming REALLY REALLY bad now, haha!!! 🙂
I would have to say that the Tetons has become a happy place for me also. My hubby and I went there this summer for the first time and just loved it. God was gracious enough with us to have it be beautiful blue sky each day and it was just wonderful. Even while driving out to the airport, I’d pull out the camera and say “maybe I need just one more picture of the Tetons” after taking hundreds. Love to go back again!
Greetings from 112-degree Yorba Linda, CA, in Orange County. We now have your Houston weather after a very mild summer. (They say it’s a dry heat. I don’t care; it’s still HOT.)
Love how God met you in unexpected ways. And thanks for sharing your thoughts and pictures.
Some thoughts: That piece of fine art looks like a hairball to me.
I wonder if that pair of shoes is for the person who wants to show off her pedicure, while keeping her heels and ankles warm?
I can’t believe you got so close to those foxes without freaking out!
Finally, one of my happy places (I have many) is at the ocean, with the waves crashing on the beach. It just displays God’s power and majesty to me.
The Colorado Rocky Mountains. I am a flatlander who first gazed on these magnificent mountains when I was 10 years old. I was completely drawn in and now imagine I was born to be a mountain girl having traced my ancestors to Bern, Switzerland. It’s the place where I always hoped I would live and still hope I can retire someday. Best of all, it’s the place I found Jesus.
That sounds beautiful. I am NOT a mountain girl 🙂 I am an Oregonian…but I stay in the valley 🙂
My happy place is far from yours…it’s Disneyland 🙂
I have the best memories and my husband and I act like kids every time we go. We’re just downright giddy.
People think we’re strange, and we kind of are. But it’s just not possible to not be happy there!
Looking forward to going back next year with the WHOLE family including our son who will be 3 and our TWINS who will be 10 months! CRAZY!? yep 🙂
KB
Krystle – where are you in the valley? I’m from the Applegate area.
I am so happy you had such a wonderful visit to your “happy place”! It looks lovely. I’ve never been to Wyoming, but I so want to go and visit Melana there. Perhaps sometime soon.
My happy place is right here, in Tennessee, especially in the fall. We love to noodle, to drive the back roads with no set destination in mind, and stop for a closer look or a hike at any place that catches our fancy.
Love and hugs,
Adrienne
P.S. I agree with you on those boot/sandal things…. What on earth…..? And whenever I see a product that makes no sense, like those things, I always think that somewhere, some brave soul stood up in a product development or marketing meeting and pitched it as a good idea! What were they thinking???
“Noodle?” Love it! Apparently I’ve been noodling my whole life and just didn’t know it!
Oh Beth, it sounds like an amazing place.
One question – you didn’t feel like shopping?? Were you ill? haha jk
I am so happy for you that even though it wasn’t what you planned, it was a time to rest and recharge your batteries. You do so much for so many people that I am so thankful to hear about times when God blesses you in various ways.
I hope that God provides another venue for you and Keith to get some quality/fun time soon.
What beautiful photos. My husband was just there two weeks ago mule deer hunting. He had been running to prepare for the high altitude, but unfortunately, those mountains were a killer. He says next time they’re bringing a pack goat or horse to carry the extra 50 pounds. But he had a great time, and saw a moose and an elk.
For our first anniversary we stayed in a lodge in Wyoming. For our second we were all over the place. For our third, we went back to my home place in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I do love it there.
http://sdliving.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/into-the-wild/
Beth, what a blessing this post was! My hubby and I went to Jackson, Wyoming and Yellowstone for a vacation in 1999. Oh, how your sharing, brought back some wonderful memories. GOD is so generous to us by sharing his creations!
What a beautiful happy place you have! I am so glad you got to go. My mom lives in the mountains of Southern California, and I live in Michigan, so I do not get to see her very often at all. It is special to me that Amanda got to go with you, because I know how much that would mean to my mom and I to get to take a getaway trip together as the adult friends and sisters in Christ we now are.
Where is my happy place? I’m not totally sure. Maybe it changes with the season of life. Right now I find immense happiness in my church – even just the thought of getting to go makes me happy, and walking in the building gives me that “home” feeling you are talking about. I know that feeling. The building is nothing special or nothing particularly pretty – it’s very functional – but to me, it’s “home”.
I love you, Ms. Beth. So glad to hear from you today. God be with you always.
Hilary
Oh Beth, that was so lovely it made me cry and go ohh, and ahhh. I don’t have a happy place. Wish I could find one. I just love the woods. It smells so special this time of year. And to be with your loving daughter. Such heaven. Thank you for sharing and giving me a mini vacation.
I know Jenny Lake. 14 years ago, I was in Lamaze Class. We were instructed to close our eyes and picture a peaceful place, hear it, smell it…. get yourself there. So we did. It was a sweet time especially at the end when we share with our spouses where we had gone and my husband and I had been to the same place.
Blessings, e
My Happy Place was my grandparents farm back in Ohio…They sold it YEARS ago…..I need to find another Happy Place! 🙂
The Grand Tetons! Our family went on a six week RV trip around the US 5 years ago and we experienced many different cultures and landscapes on our journey and by far the Tetons have this way of calling me back. “Home” is exactly how I would describe it, as well. I am a mountain girl and love the majesty of God’s creation and there is something about the air, so clean and fresh!
Since those mountains keep calling, I decided our family needed to answer and so in June of 2011 we get to venture back and stay a week!
Thank you for posting pictures. I can see it in my mind!
Well, I am blessed to live in this glorious, happy place. I moved here from Los Angeles 21 years ago. This month, September has been so spectacular that it caused me to forgive June for all her rain. Love PSB in Wilson and Sweetwater, too. So happy that you and your daughter were here to enjoy our beautiful mountains and hiking trails. They truly defy description. Our Thursday night group is watching and discussing The Inheritance. I will share this blog with them. We are all so thrilled to share our part our home with the entire world. We are changed by your studies and knowledge of God’s word. Thank you
Beautiful!!
My happy place is the Lake Superior shoreline on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. I actually love all of the UP but Lake Superior takes my breath away.
So glad it was a wonderful trip even though it wasn’t what you had planned!!
I’ve said this many times before but just wanted to again say THANK YOU for your obedience in teaching the Word. Working through the updated Breaking Free and finding it awesome and awful all at the same time! Awesome to know that God will free me… awful to realize all the strongholds and bondage that I need freed from!
Praying His richest blessings for you and your family!
~H
What a great trip!! Interesting footwear you found…what are those called, must be a mix of boots and sandals…boodals? Or, how about Sandoots? haha
My happy place is in the woods, seeing and hearing all of God’s creatures is wonderful!
My happy place is Marco Island Florida. It is known for the best shelling in the world. I told my daughter when I get old and cranky just take me down to Marco Island and let me collect shells.
I am a mountain girl too! Married to a beach man. And, living in Atlanta. I have so longed to make it to Wyoming, and have never really known why!! So much so, that about 13 yrs. ago, HGTV was giving away a dream home in Jackson Hole, and I was bound and determined to win. That was before internet. So, I sat myself down and sent in 20 handwritten and stamped entries! I didn’t win, but have had Jackson Hole on my list ever since!! Thank you so much for sharing. It felt like I was right there with you!! Preparing for Bible study right now, and God blessed me w/ a little mountain break. Thanks for sharing :))
I lived in the Tetons for only 6 months one winter, but I felt like God was wrapping His loving arms around me each and every day. It was a season that I desperately needed to be reminded of His love, His plan, and His purpose for me and somehow God plopping me in the middle of the Tetons for six months did just that.
That area will always feel a bit like home to me!
Glad you had a great time!
What wonderful memories! My husband and I went to the Tetons for our honeymoon and Jenny Lake was my favorite spot on our entire trip.
Beth,
You’ve described with great elegance a place I have longed to visit. Now I’m salivating even more…
My happiest place is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (the Tennessee side, though North Carolina is growing on me)! I grew up spending summers there with my family, and have since been bringing my son to the same spots ever since. The mountain streams are so icy, they’ll take your breath away, but I cannot visit without putting my bare feet in, no matter the time of year. (I have a great picture of a February snowfall coupled with blue toes in the water!)
My husband had never visited the park when we met, and while we were engaged we traveled with a group of youth workers to a retreat weekend in the Smokies. I introduced him to the beauty of every turn and bend in the river, the rocks to climb, the paths to hike. Now, just about every summer, we have a couple day hikes for just the two of us, a river day for the three of us and several tours around Cades Cove loop for me, Steve, Elijah (our son) and my momma and daddy. We vacation there because it is HOME, and it doesn’t feel like vacation — it feels like plain old life done right!
Cades Cove is the most extraordinary loop of 11 miles inside the park you’ve ever seen. In the morning the mist (or “smoke”) is still settled around the cove, and turkey, deer, fox and occasionally black bear are in abundance. This year we were privileged to see a fawn just hours old teetering behind its momma carefully avoiding the coyote prowling the meadows. Spotted, wet and fragile, it was Genesis come to life in 4D!
On Wednesday and Saturday mornings they close the loop to vehicles and you can run, hike, or bike the loop. That’s become one of Steve and my favorite things to do, riding our Treks around the Cove while it wakes up to a new day. This year, we watched a black bear ramble into an open meadow and sit himself down in a blackberry patch and eat away.
When God formed the heavens and the earth, I think He spoke extra graces over the Smokies. Or perhaps it’s where He lets heaven and earth touch for just a small space in time. It is more than my happy place; it’s a holy place, for there I see and taste and feel His presence more than ever.
Thanks for sharing, and asking us to do so as well.
I can’t wait to hear about other places I have yet to explore and enjoy!
Joy S.
Springfield, OH
Joy, I agree! I live about 1hour from the Smokies and grew up camping at Cades Cove. It is amazing!!
My happy place is Ludington, MI…LOVE it!!
Oh the picture from the plane took my breath away!
My happy place…I love the beach…everything about it and being in and around barns, especially horse barns. Love the smell and the sounds. Oh and I also love the Smoky Mountins. Yes those are definitely my happy places!
Wishing everyone a wonderful day!
michelle in VT
I think the Jackson Hole is beautiful but too expensive for us other Wyoming folks so we find our happy place in the Big Horn Mountains by my home town of Sheridan.They may not be as majestic as the Tetons. We love them as much. We can stand out on our deck and look at those beautiful mountains every morning. Sometimes we just drive up the mountain on a Saturday to see what animals we can see that day. I can imagine there are many places all over the USA just as beautiful and believe me I have lived other places too. Florida, Colorado and Utah. Now I am grateful to be in Wyoming where I grew up and started it all long ago. That is my happy place.
What a lovely post! Having never been myself (I’m up here in Canada) it makes me crave adventure to seek out such stunning examples of God’s creative beauty such as this. We truly do have some incredible sights here in North America don’t we?
Thanks for sharing how what could have been a disappoitment turned into a lovely experience.
Oh Beth it sounds amazing…what I love most is the time you have with your daughter!! Was it always that great??? Mine are 16 and 13, they are my everything ( besides Jesus and husband of course) but some days I just don’t like them!! I so want to be thier friends later, not now!! Will it happen?? My oldest had a brain injury 4 years ago..and trying to reconnect to a differnt child that I gave birth to has been trying..I love her so!! God has been so good to me and my family…He has mighty plans for her, and we cannot wait to see what they are..So I guess my happy place is just being with them…I love hearing about your relationships with your daughters and pray one day I will have the same!! Thanks for all you share…Love u
Just as you are a mountain girl at heart – I am a beach bum at heart. Even though I grew up in a landlocked state in the midwest. I LOVE the ocean – LOVE IT! So… I imagine my happy place is in Hawaii on a beach…
But seeing as how I have never been there and seems unlikely that I will go…
My happy place is sitting around a crackling campfire by the pond at our convent in Clyde. Drinking apple cider that’s been warmed over the fire, making smores and Jiffypop, sharing stories, and marveling at the stars…and their Creator.
I’m a mountain girl – western NC – but the beach is my happy place. I’m as giddy as a ten-year-old weeks before we go and cry when I have to leave. The breeze, sand, water water water sit me down and soothe my soul. It’s what i picture when i need to take a step back from fear, anxiety or anger. I love that God gave us variety!
Well, we don’t live far from where you were here in Missoula,MT. And one of my many happy places is Glacier National Park at the very NW corner of our state, just before you hit Canada. So, so, SO indescribably beautiful. And not just for the eyes, but for all your senses. The air is so crisp and clean, you find yourself constantly breathing in deeply, and the sounds are only of creation. Rushing stream, birds, leaves crackling. It’s simply beautiful, and makes me in awe of our Creator, who’s so imaginative! Who would have thought of all these things??? Only Him, and more we have yet to discover in eternity! So glad you guys got an unplanned girls’ weekend!
I LOVE Jackson Hole, it’s probably the most peaceful place I’ve ever been. But my Happy Place this morning was waking up with windows OPEN (Loving the Fall weather)and a young buck and a fawn in our backyard, making whatever you call the ‘snorting’ noises they make! It woke me up and before I opened my eyes I knew exactly what it was–I love watching deer! Even tho I just discovered that they’re the ones eating my hostas!! We’ll keep planting them if they stay in our yard, that seems to be the only thing they eat!
Your weekend with Amanda sounds wonderful and especially relaxing! I’m feelin’ the need for some mountain air! Oh, wait-I’m going to Co. Springs next week to hug and spoil Ms. Kennedy!! We may have to go on a hike!
Thanks for sharing your love of the outdoors and wildlife with us. God gave us so many beautiful places and critters, they just make me SMILE!!!!! A big ‘God smile’!!
Aaaahhhh…right before you said it I was dreaming of Signal Mountain. Love that place!
Hi Beth!
I loved looking at the pictures of your happy place in the Tetons. They were magnificent! It is such pleasure to sit still and see God all around in those places.
My happy place is in Palm Desert. It is near Palm Springs….I didn’t realize how happy it made me until this summer. Yes, in the 109 degree dry heat. (yes, I know its much better than that humid stuff in Houston!)
My family always had a house out there and as a girl I went out every chance I could get to not only be with my Sissie ( my aunt, the best friend a girl could ever have) but to be in a safe happy place. I know my Sissie was the core of that at the time. But now going back, while she no longer lives there- puts my mind and heart at ease. There are beautiful mountains all to the south and desert all around.
Today, I am submitting an offer to buy my first ever home. It will be there….just to have…to go to when I am ready to lose my ever loving mind-in my life here….I will still be living 2 hours away from my new haven….God willing it all works out for HIS glory. Its funny I went on the blog and it was about this, happy places.
I have prayed and prayed and our family really feels a peace.
I would appreciate any prayers on this new exciting season of my life. God is so GOOOD!
Oh and also, I have to tell you…last night as my husband was struggling with something, I pulled out my ‘Believing God’ and ‘Breaking free’ studies and shared with him all that God had done in me to break me free and to just plain and simply believe him. When I left the room and came back, he had picked them up and was reading on his own. PRAISE GOD!
Well, I think I have written enough! God bless each of you and all that may read this!
In His Love!
T
I have a few happy places. I love Lake Superior. I am somehow able to breathe deeper when I am on that lake. It is an incredible beauty. I also love the mountains as I grew up in the Wasatch mountain range. Mountains are evidence of how HUGE God can be. My favorite happy place is anywhere my husband is. Inside his arms is the closest feeling of peace I imagine having in the arms of my God.
Glad you got a break. Thanks for sharing with us! Love and blessings to you and your family.
Lorie
Beth,
What a wonderful happy place. Mine is at the ocean in the Monterey Bay in California. I was born and raised here, but sitting on the beach overlooking crashing waves while the sun is setting behind the trees does it for me!
Thanks so much for sharing.
You are such a blessing!
Rhonda
My happy place is Pensacola Florida. I’m an ocean girl but not a sun girl. Gotta have my lounge chair and an umbrella. Listening to the ocean and reading all day is devine. We love eating at Hemingway’s and watching the sunset. It has become a sort of tradition to go for my birthday. Only because my birthday is in August so we try to get a little trip in before school starts. My ultimate happy place is Hawaii but can’t make it there every year. I love snorkeling and swimming with the most beautiful fish in the world.
One day my husband and I want to have a house on the beach and one in Montana or Wyoming. My Aunt lives in Sheridan and I have so many happy memories of summers with her there. Beauty abounds. What a dream to live every day in your happy place.
Thank you so much for sharing this…it is absolutely breath taking! But I sit here so jealous, fighting away the tears, wishing my mom wanted to be with me there.
Right now my happy place is sitting at my computer, listening to KSBJ and reading Beth’s blog. I missed you. God delights me in your sharing your life and the wonders of His creation which I can not travel to physically. I am so thankful you and Amanda were together, sad for Melissa and Keith. Sounds like a “mark the date” is in order for a family trip to your favorite place together. Thank you Beth for my happy place this morning. I have my window open feeling the amazing cool CS, Texas weather too. Have a blessed day.
Oh Beth! How I love to read your blog posts! I live in Montana, and have a few happy places in my home state. I also have a Teton story that I think you’ll get a kick out of: When I was 2 years old, we were flying over the Tetons on the way back from a vacation, and my mom said, “Look at the Teton Mountains, Lindsay,” pointing out the window of the plane. Later on that day, I told my grandma that I saw the “Crouton Mountains.” Cute, huh? I’m glad you had a good vacation, even without your man. God is SOOO good to us, isn’t He?
Good Morning Beth!
This is the first morning I have opened your blog in some time. The first few weeks of school always feel like hurricane to me. My family & I were at Jackson Lake Lodge this summer. We hiked around Jenny Lake and up to Inspiration Point. I may have been to the Jackson area as a child – but I do not remember those mountains! I do think I could live right at the base of them. I love to ski, so I have seen some beautiful mountains – but there is something incredible about the Grand Tetons. I will be back!!
I just want to tell you that I moved from Santa Barbara, California to Bend, Oregon about 7 years ago and I had never done one of your studies or even heard of you (sorry). I helped with bible studies at my church in California for years…Anyway, some girlfriends took me to Portland to see you in person and since then I have done 7 or 8 of your studies. I have been inspired and challenged by you at every turn. I have now seen you speak in person in at least 8 different cities across the country, as well as via simulcast. The thing that always sticks with me after hearing you speak – is your amazing, passionate love for the Lord (which is contagious) and that none of this is about you! That is an unusual trait these days & God has richly blessed you with incredible gifts. Thank you for sharing your life with so many!
My sister has now lived in Austin for about 12 years and so I can appreciate the Texan humor! I am married to a wonderful man and we have a 16 year old son and a 11 year old daughter. We love the mountains in the Bend area – but they do not compare to those majestic Tetons! I will be in Spokane next month to see you with some girlfriends. I may just have to give you a hug and mention the Tetons 🙂
Love,
Cathy
Right there with you sister! Mountains over a beach anyday! We LOVE the mountains! Doesn’t really matter where the are but anywhere the views are spectacular and the weather is cool!
My husband and I always take a fall trip to the mountains. However, this year the economy has kept us in HOT Houston! So yes, we are very thankful for these last two cool days! But not just quite the same without the mountains in sight!!
So glad you and Amanda were able to enjoy!
Love you so much Beth!
Julie
Loved the pics and the story of your weekend. My happy place is right where I live – surrounded by gorgeous mountain ranges, lakes, rivers, streams, the aurora filled night sky, fox in the front yard (it is rare, I admit); moose in the backyard (also, not necessarily normative); and grizzlies in the neighbor’s yard (extremely rare, thankfully); loons on the lake, eagles overhead. That’s my happy place (goodness, it sounds like I work for the local Chamber of Commerce!).
Seeing the northern lights is on my “bucket list”! Can you really see them from where you live? I suppose you can. It sounds lovely!
Hugs,
Adrienne
Hey Adrienne! I really can see them from where I live – when they show up and show off, that is. The aurora come in eleven year cycles of activity. We are currently on the “upswing” towards increased solar activity – and I’m looking so forward to it!! The heavens do declare the glory of God and it’s especially cool when they do it late at night!
And show off they do!! They’re amazing to me! When we were stationed in No. Dak. years ago, we used to lay a blanket out and watch them ‘dance’ all over the most beautiful canvas of sky! What a blessing to live where you do!
Cool! I’ve been to Anchorage a couple times. The last time I climbed one of the mountains (can’t remember the name). At the very top, the view was amazing! You could see so far, looking down on the city and the bay, wow! Beautiful place!
If you climbed a mountain in Anchorage, it was probably Flattop – where, yes, the view is amazing!
Yes, Flattop, that was it! I kept thinking Tabletop, but I think that is one here in the Adirondacks in New York State. 🙂
Never been out west before! But through the photos I feel like I can totally inhale the clean crisp air!
My happy place = rolling green hills
I like to sit on top of a grassy hill and dream about God, hum a song or two to Him, watch Him work the sky, and talk to Him.
Thank you for sharing your weekend with us!
Jessica
Beth – It was 58 degrees this morning and I was so happy I did a happy dance in my kitchen while putting half&half in my Gevalia coffee. I have had you on my heart so much the past 2 days. So thankful you had a visit to your happy place,and pray that another one with Keith can be scheduled soon. However, as the wife of a hunter, I know deer season looms…
My happy place at home is my fenced in garden (that my man built) with five raised brick garden beds that are waiting some fall crops to be planted – cabbage, romaine, collards. Right now they just have some tall coloful zinnias and a moonvine that is putting on a late show as if she knows I will be pulling her up soon… I love to be there, I can hear my fountain, birds chirping, the hum of a John Deere tractor in the distance, and sometimes the irrigation system at the huge cotton farm across the road. Powerful water sprays shoot out with that “chu chu chu chu” sound. They are harvesting the cotton now and it is so pretty. It is QUIET there and when I’m out there alone, I just hear Jesus so much easier – you know? I’m an old soul in many ways, and I love that old hymn:
I come to the garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses.
And the Voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the JOY we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known…
Love you much,
GJ
Jan, This reminds me of how much my grandmother loved her garden also. She would walk from the house and make a trail with two dogs and a cat following right behind her, whistling a favorite hymn. She had a green thumb for planting and growing all kinds of good food_from beans, corn, peas etc., but she also could grow the prettiest flowers. God really knows how to grow a garden!
Oh, I love that hymn….! And I can just picture you working in your beautiful garden.
Hugs,
Adrienne
PJ ~
I sing that song a lot!!
I love the garden too ~
(((HUGS))) my dear friend,
Kim
I’ve only been to The Tetons once, and it was in Feb. The skiing was amazing but I so long to go back during a different season.
So, so majestic!
Thanks for sharing!
My happy place is Orcas Island Washington. Been going there since I was a kid. It is so beautiful in the winter, all the tourists are gone, the docks are put away and you can just sit in front of your cabin and look out at the ocean and all the flocks of birds that are flying through. I have an amazing memory from there when I was a teenager in a 12 foot boat amidst a pod of Orca whales. You could hear their breath before you saw them, then they came and circled around our boat at dusk, it was amazing! Eating fresh Salmon, ling cod, and abalone every night was wonderful. Another wonderful memory was diving into the water at night, and it was filled with a kind of plankton that lit up as you moved in the water, so as you dove in it was like being surrounded by stars.
Dear Beth, I love this post. Your relationship with your daughters seems a great deal like mine with my sister and my mother. We definitely “get” your sense of humor. The shoes…pretty hilarious…and yes, “why?” sums it up. I just had the privilege of having my dearest mother and sister visit me this past week for my 25th birthday. I hadn’t seen them in months…which is a HUGE deal for our family! I grew up my whole life in Florida, where they live now, but moved to Ohio a year ago with my husband. We got married, spent a week in Jamaica, came home to FL for 2 days to pack up my entire life, and drove up to Ohio where my darling husband is getting his PhD in mechanical engineering…he’s my little genius. I adore my husband and would travel to the ends of the earth to be with him…but being apart from my family is sooooooo difficult. Especially for the “baby of the family mama’s girl.” But I know that God has great and marvelous plans for us! Anywho—just wanted you to know how much I admire you, and how much I identify with your relationship with Christ. I first heard you speak live when I was 14, in Lakeland, FL. God really spoke to my heart through your teaching. Since then, I have relished all your books…and have attended several of your live and simulcast events. My favorite of your books, So Long Insecurity, and Get Out of that Pit. Good stuff. I would love it if you wrote a book on marriage. (just a suggestion) 😉 My husband and I just celebrated our one-year anniversary and have had a blast! I know God has amazing plans for our lives together, and I would just love to read about your experience of a Godly marriage.
God Bless,
Lauren Yentsch
I have been to Wyoming but not Jackson Hole and I really want to go there one day. Wyoming is a beautiful state! I enjoyed reading about your trip and I am happy Amanda got to meet up with you and have some mom and daughter time. 🙂 I love when God shows off!!! D e l i g h t !
My happy place would be the Smoky Mountains. We live about 40 minutes from the Smokies and there are so many places to hike, picnic and a place right in the middle of the Smokies is Cades Cove. There you can gaze upon the gorgeous mountains, visit old log cabins where families settled in the Cove(many years ago) . God has delighted me so many times when we drive through this 11 mile loop in the Cove. I have seen mama bear and a baby bear, snakes, wild turkeys, deer to name a few. There are waterfalls and Mills and churches and cemeteries. I can’t wait to go in a few weeks, I am waiting for the leaves to change color. You can also ride horses and even rent a carriage instead of driving your car. They have hayrides in the Fall. 🙂 So peaceful.
A hayride sounds like so much fun! That brings back many childhood memories for me! You’re happy place sounds wonderful and you’re only 40 minutes away! That’s awesome!
Bobbie, were you bare-footed on the hayride.LoL
Sounds fun…haven’t done that in years.
Joyce, I think I was!! I haven’t been on one in years either. I’m a barefoot girl to begin with..I shed my shoes any time I can!! 🙂