Thankful Thursday #4

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.
— Flora Whittemore

Thanks to Iris at Sting My Heart for hosting Thankful Thursdays!

I couldn't wait for Thankful Thursday this week! I knew what I was going to be thankful for days ago!
My husband and I, along with our caboose kiddo, went camping last weekend with another family. Our friends, Mary and Doug, also have a late-in-life child. But, where I am a repeater--i.e. I have 3 much older children and then my surprise blessing--Mary was a first-time mom at 46.
But that's another blog post.
The camping trip gave me so many reasons to be thankful. Things like:

• falling asleep to the sound of a rushing mountain stream a few yards from our pop-up camper.

• the sticky sweetness of melt-in-my mouth marshmellows toasted just right: lightly brown on the outside and soft and warm on the inside.

• the joyous sound of my daughter's laughter as she caught her first fish--a 14 inch rainbow trout.

• the comfortable friendship with Doug and Mary. No stress. No tension. Just friends camping together and enjoying each others' company. They didn't even laugh when I tried to cool the container of orange juice in the river--and the current pulled it downstream.

• venturing into Crested Butte for lunch and regular bathrooms. I'm not a big fan of port-a-potties, which is all there was at our campsite--even if they were enclosed, lighted and had posters of birds and flowers on the walls. Oh, look! Wallpaper!

• looking up at the sky at night and seeing hundreds of stars. Hundreds.

• absolutely perfect weather. Blue skies. Puffy white clouds. Warm weather that wasn't too warm. And cool mountain nights that made me snuggle up with my husband in our joint sleeping bag.

• the fun two kids can have looking for rocks and bugs and ant hills and flowers and whatever else caught their fancy.

• a husband who is willing to do all the driving and let me doze in the passenger seat.

• the beauty of Monarch Pass (going) and Cottonwood Pass (returning home).