Those Beautiful Idaho Skies...

I've visited the neighboring state to the north more times than any other save my home state. As a child, every summer (and many times fall, winter, and spring...) my family would travel to the Gem State. It was a logical destination--both my mother and father lived most of their lives in Idaho and we had family there.

There's no way I could appreciate the state as a child--I was too young. We'd travel first in the big Buick Electra 225s that were my dad's favorites. After he passed away, we traveled in many different cars that my mom picked up here and there. As I grew up, I drove back and forth in the cars I chose, and finally, in the cars and vans my wife and I bought. As a kid, the scenery was just that--stuff to see until you reached the place you were going.

Maybe it's because I drove from Idaho Falls alone today that I looked up and noticed just how amazing the skies above the road and plains were. Then again, it could have been the sunroof that allowed me to see above the traveling car.

I was unable to check out a lot of the skies this last weekend. I spent most of the time in the gymnasium of Skyview High School on Idaho Fall's east side. I attended my daughter's last ballroom dance competition as a high school student. If you've never attended, these are the types of events where you go inside the gym in the morning, and sometimes leave long past the sun has set. Friday night, I took a break and looked up.

I'm glad I did.

It was beautiful.

I snapped a few pictures, trying to capture what I was seeing. On the building's west side, I stepped outside and saw a group of dancers taking in some fresh crisp Idaho spring air. Their colorful costumes proved a stark difference to the colors of Mother Nature. I didn't get their permission to take their pictures. I tried to make them unrecognizable. You might, if you know these dancers, recognize them. There's more than a good chance the dancers in the pictures will never see this post.

I hope when the opportunity to return to the Gem State occurs, I'll take more time to notice, not just the agrarian landscape, the long-cooled lava rocks, the sagebrush, the majestic Snake River, and the towering Teton Range, but the incredible umbrella of blue and white above.