Last week we went to Canada. I might eventually write about the actual trip, but I really just want to post scenery pictures. 🙂 It was so pretty! I was hoping it would be, and it didn't disappoint.

The best thing is, none of these spots but one were places that we went to specifically to take pictures. These were literally just pull-off-to-the-side-of-the-road or quick-open-the-window-as-we-drive-by places. So much beautiful landscape, just begging to be seen, and see it we did.Give me trees and mountains over literally any other scenery. Throw in a little fog, and it's absolutely perfect.

This was my favorite spot from the whole trip. (I mean, aside from the sixteen mosquito bites I procured while we were there, but anyway. Definitely worth it.)

These next ones were taken in a field behind Eric's Aunt Betty's house. I just can't imagine having those hills in my backyard. I have a dumpy old station that I run out to take pictures of every now and then when the sky is especially pretty -- I'd have to go out much more often if I had these mountains!

These next few are just random driving pictures that I thought were pretty. We ended up in someone else's car for a bit of the time, and it was so fun to just be able to open the window and take a picture. (It wasn't till we were on the way home that I finally thought of taking the screen out of the camper window so I could do the same thing in it.)

I always feel kind of silly trying to take pictures out of a moving vehicle, but then I remind myself that I have just one such picture framed and hanging on my wall from our time in Australia, and that was taken on some winding, narrow back road out of the window of a jouncing ute, so I keep trying! There's always a few that work, and always a few (read: many) more to delete.
Next, we have where we went to actually take pictures of the scenery. Just look at those mountains in the middle of those hills. And that river. Stunning. Just not quite as stunning as that mysterious, ethereal, misty treeline. 🙂

The beautiful Robson Valley, with the Rockies on one side and the Cariboo Mountains on the other. I've been in valleys. I grew up in one. But not one with the mountains so close on either side. It was just lovely. You can kind of see the mountains on both sides in the next picture, but it certainly doesn't do it justice. They were just right there, massive and towering and beautiful.

And then I have more random road pictures of the drive home.

Eric needed to stop to use the facilities, and I told him if he could stop somewhere that I could take a picture of this certain mountain, that would be wonderful, then I disappeared to the back of the camper for something or other. When we stopped and I came to the front, I was doubting that he had even remembered my request, which was honestly just fine.

But then I walked around the front of the camper to THIS. And I literally laughed out loud. I mean, could he have stopped at a more perfect spot?! Just incredible.

This was another random stop, but Eric had seen an old forest road nearby and told me to run back it and see what I saw. This is what I saw. 🙂

So, so pretty, and full of all my favorite colors and favorite scenery. We've got to road-trip like that more often, taking time to take the pictures. I just love it so much.

We didn't go on this trip just to see beautiful scenery though. We went to see Eric's old stomping grounds, the hospital he was born in, the town he called home till he was seven, the gas station he rode his bike to. We also went to see the people, relatives on both sides of Eric's family, although the actual reunion we were there for was with Eric's mom's side. And we saw one extra special person for the last time on this side of heaven.

Eric's grandma was frail and small but still smiling and still sweet.

She quietly traded earth for heaven about four hours after we got home from Canada, and the next morning during Bible time, Alec started musing about heaven. He was thrilled to (re)learn about the gates made of pearls and the streets made of gold, and then he wondered what the throne looked like.

We discussed it for a bit, and then it almost brought tears to my eyes to remind him that the sweet old great-grandma he'd seen in Canada was there seeing those streets and that throne right that very moment.

We don't know exactly what it looks like, but she does, and we just saw her.

Life and death and the way they intertwine are truly incredible. To be here, in this moment and space and time and place one moment, and then to be transported to a place far more glorious in the blink of an eye.

I saw Eric's grandma more than I knew her, and I saw her very little, but I have no doubt she heard those beautiful words when she finally got home. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

From the beauties of B.C. to the glories of heaven . . . what a truly amazing God we serve.