Rainstorm in the Mountains

Raindrops on Grand Ronde Lake.

On Thursday of last week, we were just sort of lazing around, (I don't know if lazing is a word but it fits!) I had made some sandwiches and we were going to go to the next lake over to eat them but were in no hurry. You have to remember that these are glacial lakes because we are nearly 8,000 feet above sea level so they are not very big. In fact, most people would call these lakes ponds, but they are deep and clear and beautiful...not that ponds can't be beautiful, just that these are EXTRA beatiful because of where they are. Well anyhow, we were still resting up and taking in the scenery and feeding the chipmunks dogfood and so on when we decided to go inside and read a bit before leaving for our lunch. I had been reading from the Bible as Steve lay down to rest. I don't even remember at this moment what I was reading because I was reading stories of Jesus in one of the Gospels when I happened to look out. The photo in the post below is of the beginning of something big...the clouds were rolling in!
We decided to go ahead and eat at the next nearest lake, the Grand Ronde, and then hurry back to camp. When we got there, we sat down and I snapped a few photos as the thunder and lightning flashed and rumbled off in the distance. We ate rather leisurely and watched the storm roll in. There are lily pads on this lake and when the rain begain it sounded like one of those cactus rain sticks you can buy that is filled with some sort of beads and when you turn it upside down it rattles through the hollow areas inside the barrel of the cactus. It was a beautiful scene with the fishermen on the lake.
Well, we enjoyed this for about 30 or 40 minutes and then it began to pour! From 1:30 to 7:30 p.m. it rained HARD! Kade had brought a great deal of DVDs to watch so we went in the camper (thank you God for our little camper!) and made hot apple cider and watched the rain and a movie.
Once, the tent tried to float away and the boys had to go make little ditches around it to draw the water away. It was OK even though the tent flap zipper had quit working and so we pinned the door shut with clothespins that somehow I seemed to pack. (Another blessing) And so the day went. It was so wet when the storm was over we didn't even try building a camp fire but spent the evening again in the camper.
It was beautiful watching the clouds float low and block out the mountain that you saw in my first post and also watching the sheets of rain come over the area also blocking out the background of trees and mountains.
I don't believe I have ever smelled such clean, fresh air. It was not hard to think that God had given us such a day so that we would rest a bit more.
On Friday morning, we built our first campfire and it was very smoky because of it being so damp.