This is OUR HIKE.…3-4 times a week we put our backpacks and boots on and traverse this beautiful loop on Strawberry Mountain. We have hiked this loop for the past three summers. This special hike of ours is just 1/4 mile from the front door of our cabin!
It is 1.75 miles with 225 feet of elevation. So it’s a pretty decent climb which includes some switchbacks. Our average time is around 43 minutes….and our record to complete this loop was 39 minutes and 30 seconds. We set this record this summer—as we are nearing 80 years old. And we weren’t even trying for a record. We guess that we are getting better with age…just like wine!
This morning we hiked our loop as the sun was rising over the Mogollon Rim with our little town of Pine in the valley between Strawberry Mountain and the Rim. We call Pine our Brigadoon….the magical town in the musical Brigadoon, where every one is kind and gentle and where love flourishes.
Here are a series of photos of The Vicky and Dan Strawberry Mountain Loop….
It is a joy to rise early in the morning and hike together in this little bit of paradise that God has provided for us.
Hannah and Vernon both made a surprise birthday present for their Mama. They painted heart-shaped rocks at Grandma and Grandpa’s home.
And then they made white chocolate fudge with walnuts for her birthday cake!
Grandma decorated the top of Mama’s cake with heart cookies covered in chocolate frosting….
Off to the river for Mila’s birthday party….a SWIM PARTY!
Hannah carried two of the children’s chairs in her arms and baby Gideon’s chair on her head all the way down to the river….a very ingenious way to handle her unwieldy load.
Presents for Mama from her precious children….
Have you ever had your family sing Happy Birthday to you and eaten your birthday cake while you were sitting in the middle of a river—surrounded by all four of your children? Well, Mila has!
What a marvelous birthday swim party!!!!
And waiting for the birthday girl at her home was a gift from her dear husband, Owen. He would have liked to have been at her side for her birthday….but soon they will be together again. And then their family will be complete!
Fifteen years ago Dad presided at our wedding and Mom sang two beautiful songs…”Love is a Many Splendored Thing” and “Always.” Very appropriate, since we are together always, and we promised to love each other always. This is a promise that we have kept.
And love IS a many splendored thing….look at the glow in our eyes on the day we were married. That glow still shines brightly!
Our 5th wedding anniversary….a week long cruise to Alaska.
Our 10th wedding anniversary….at an Airbnb in Strawberry. It was so wonderful that a month later we bought our cabin in Pine, the small town next door to Strawberry.
Our 15th wedding anniversary….at the Love Nest in Pine.
Aaa
Our anniversary gifts….we gave each other a vintage musical dancing couple. And, amazingly, when Rachelle and Ryan and Mila and Owen celebrated our anniversary last week with their children they gave us cards AND a vintage musical dancing couple.
A 15th wedding anniversary is symbolized traditionally with crystal….but for us, 15 years is obviously symbolized with a vintage dancing couples.
Aren’t our dancing couples lovely!
We met at a dance, so of course, to celebrate our 15 years of bliss, we now have three musical dancing couples….AND we danced!
One of our songs is “A Daisy a Day.” In this song a couple is always seen walking together, and every day the man gives his love a daisy. When they are very old, the woman dies. The old man still is seen every day walking to the top of the hill, and talking as if his wife is still beside him. At the top of the hill he brings a daisy a day to his wife.
Every morning when I wake up, I find a daisy that my sweetheart has left for me. I know that in life and in death that my Danny will always give me a daisy a day….that I will be his love forever, as he will be mine.
So today, on our 15th anniversary, my love played this special song for me….A Daisy a Day.
For our anniversary dinner, I made Danny’s mother’s signature homemade noodles with beef and green beans. I make this special dinner from his childhood for my dear Danny on his birthday and our anniversary. It is in remembrance of his parents and a token of my love for them and for my Danny.
He gave his dinner a “thumbs up!!!”
The perfect anniversary dessert….heart shaped cookies smothered in chocolate and homemade ice!
It feels like we’ve been married to each other all our lives. Maybe that is because we have such a deep and everlasting love. Or maybe it is because we have told each other our lives stories so many times that we feel that we were there—together since we were young children….seeing and living the same experiences. We now share the same memories.
So today we celebrated being married for 15 years…and being married forever.
