A Birthday Hike

Once a year, around my birthday, I make sure I do one specific hike. This is not just any old hike, but a wing-dinger, big-daddy kind of hike called the Flat Iron. It feels so good to challenge myself with something hard, just to make sure I still can in my “old age.”

And also, not only do I want to make sure my body still works, but there’s nothing like having a couple friends join you to get your mind and heart thinking and feeling so full. These friends are a wonder.

And can you see “the” Flat Iron up there on the right? We were getting so close to the summit of that thing when we snapped this picture.

The Actual Birthday

Ok but let’s back up to the birthday before we get to that hiking adventure. Because the birthday hike was a couple days later.

A Birthday Morning Walk

On the actual birthday I got the gift of an early morning walk with Bo Jangles through this:

I mean, could God give a better gift than the sun filtering through those lingering fall leaves, and creating the perfect crunch to walk through that golden morning sun?

Birthday Service

And THEN, could God give you a better gift than being able to head out and do some service with women I love?

I think not.

Service is my favorite birthday tradition and there are so many great service ideas on justserve.org. The best way to start out the day.

Celebrating with Dave and Friends

It was strange not to have ANY kids around on my birthday. But as much as I missed having more of my family around, honestly it was the best day. We did do a game night with friends and a birthday lunch with friends before, but on the actual day Dave and I basked in getting to do whatever we wanted. We went out to dinner…

…followed by a stroll through the mall. Love that this picture was displayed there:

Yes, the Flat Iron in all her glory, beckoning me to scale her walls.

Celebrating with Kids through Technology

The best gift of all? Our family FaceTime call. These kids really do know how to make their mama feel special.

It really was my favorite day.

The Birthday Hike

And then, onto the hike.

It takes a while to even get to the trailhead of this one:

And you go through lots of different terrain. Can you see the Flat Iron looming up ahead of us?

Scaling a few rocks in some different places.

I LOVE these kinds of rock formations at the top.

Can you see the flat iron behind us?

And here we are at the very top:

Loved hanging at the top for a while until we got too cold.

Then headed right on down.

Feeling the best to have a good hike under our belts.

Let’s wrap up this post with this photo below.

Because do you see that guy in the white shirt? He is EIGHTY-FOUR YEARS OLD. And he was hiking up that thing like nobody’s business. I’m pretty sure he was one of the ones who does it every week, in fact. (Yes there are a lot of people like that on that mountain.)

I hope I’ll be like him when I’m 84. Maybe if I keep doing this every year…

Happy Monday!