Elephant Riding

OK, so, I look ridiculous. I know. I just wanted to get this obviously ridiculous moment out of the way so that you are not distracted by the immense awesomeness of this wonderful day we spent with elephants. The costume is the old costume of mahouts, elephant handlers. The hat didn't come with the costume but my lovely husband saw them in a closet at the nature preserve and for some reason, our family, tending to lean towards laughing at ourselves more than caring about what others think, were all over the hats. The Germans chuckled at us but two minutes later, we were all doing this...

There was a moment when we were riding the elephants through the jungle that it was very quiet and I welled up with tears. I thought about all that my family had done to get to this place. I remembered, very clearly,four years ago, talking to Steve's parents in their kitchen about whether or not he should take a chance and take a temporary job down south possibly losing his permanent geologist position. His Mom had just completed a successful round of chemo and both of them, without a pause, said live your lives to the fullest. And here we were, with three kids, riding elephants through Thailand. It is something we could have never done if we had stayed on the safe path of job/mortgage/kids. Although it has been ridiculously hard at times starting your own business, I was so happy to see everyone's smiling faces on this day. To watch Casey feed enormous beasts, watch Phelan jump on their backs and yell Pai Pai and hear Ryder at the end of the day, tell his brothers in the shower that it was better than Disneyland felt incredibly gratifying and I hope that they take something away from it. Myself, I took away gratitude to have choices in my life and for Steve's parents who have always seen why we walk a different path, and relishing in it with us. Thank you.