Joy #5

Last night we went to the Electric Light Parade in Moab. It's one of those small town parades where anyone and their dog (or bike, it is Moab after all) are in it. The only requirement is that you have to have a light on you or your vehicle. So everyone goes and stands on the street in the freezing cold with a cup of cocoa and watches anything with lights on it drive about 1/2 a mile an hour down main street. It sounds super fun, (and lame) I know, especially given how much I HATE parades. But we do it every year. I don't know why. This year a lot of our every year traditions have changed, and I was going to let this one go too. But then we saw Santa in his jeep on Friday (It's Moab, Santa drives a jeep here, come on people...) and he told the kids he hoped to see them at the parade, and "you can't disappoint Santa, he's expecting us!" so that's how I ended up standing on a street corner freezing my butt off in the middle of the night with hot cocoa spilled down my pants. And you know what? I had a really good time. I really did. My kids are so funny. We laughed so hard it's a wonder I didn't have something else dripping down my pants. It was a really good time. More fun than I have had at parade... probably ever. And that brings me to my joy. Adventures! Our whole life has been an adventure for the past several months. Things are new and exciting, and even if we have done them before, we have never done them on our own, so everything is different. Sometimes we have a great time, and sometimes it's not the best, but the three of us really do have a good ability for find the joy in bad situations, so we usually end up laughing through our tears anyway. In just the last few months we have gone hiking in countless places (who knew my kids liked to hike so much, I thought I was the only one) gone camping, fishing, swimming in water falls, seen bear, elk, deer, badgers, snakes, mountain lions, raccoons, doves, and a million other wild and dangerous animals. We have vacationed all over Utah, and a lot in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Idaho (and don't forget the BEST VACATION EVER!), we have seem pageants, county fairs, stayed in countless hotels, traveled to Gay-tastic Disney on Ice (forever indebted to Kim for getting me through that one) met new people, forgot about our troubles, got into and out of sticky situations, met fascinating people, learned more about each other than I thought possible, worked hard, and LAUGHED. I am so lucky to have the two best traveling companions in the world. I am grateful for the adventures we have together. I love the unexpected excitement of it all. I love that you never quite know how the story is going to end. Adventure is my joy #5.