The best one yet

Last Sunday we went on a hike way up in the mountains. We hiked up the valley in the middle of this picture and then curved around left, out of sight. There were five of us and Serik had a car, so instead of taking the bus to Medeo and hiking, we drove up past Chymbulak and started from there. It was beautiful!

Serik

Our path along the valley

I wonder how he lost his life??

Aida and I

Rebekah and Serik

All of us with Oleg. He is the boyfriend of Olga from a few weeks back ;)

I want to climb up every ravine and valley and path...! It was nearly overwhelming.

This is what happens when you tell us to say something other than 'cheese'

3100m altitude

On and on the path goes.. we stopped for lunch on the dam on the right in this picture. Someday I want to start out early and hike and hike and hike and see where it leads. If you go far enough (1 or 2 days) you'll hit Kyrgystan.

Picnic lunch. A word to the wise (two words, actually): don't sit across from me, and Pepsi can be dangerous at high altitudes :D
I accidentally blasted Yerlan with 1,5l of Pepsi when it got too pressurized...

Nothing like a good card game after a filling lunch in the mountains with the sun shining and good company :)

While my face still looked normal and it was warm enough to go barefoot.

Yerlan, Aida, Serik and Rebekah

Running down

I think it would be easily possible to stare at this place for hours on end

:) There was still enough snow to slide! We found one slope and tested it out. It was a bit soft in some spots, but good for the most part. It was deep too! Rebekah fell in to her waist and had to do some digging to get out again...

The local hiking attire. In summer they lose the pants too..

We had a wonderful hike with amazing scenery. The only problem :D appeared afterwards. We didn't have sunscreen and the wide expanses of snow everywhere just reflected the sun right in our faces. Monday morning we woke up with blisters all over our faces :D It's pretty painful, and our faces are rather disfigured by all the swelling and red color and yellow blisters... But we had to laugh, because last week we have been praying that God would humble us and take away our pride! He certainly answered our prayer. So be careful what you pray for, God most certainly answers prayers, and beyond your expectations!