A cooler packed for a picnic was my co captain.
Miles was snoring in the back seat and I played eenie meenie minie mo with the canyons.
It’s been a rough week for the two of us
(let’s be honest, it’s been a rough month, YEAR. Spotted with highlights but still, ROUGH.)
We just needed to get away. I realized as I hoped on the freeway how lucky we ate that we have SO much to choose from here. At the prompting of a friend I reached for my phone and turned it OFF.
I can count on one hand the amount of times my phone has physically been turned off. (don’t worry, I lived to tell the tale.)
Icurved into the canyon, and maybe said a little (tiny) swear word as I noticed I was behind a dirty dump truck that already had its flashers on. I looked to the left and to the right trying desperately to find a way to pass him. When something said as clear as day, “Just enjoy it.”
So I did.
20 miles up Big Cotton Wood Canyon. Only reaching 25mph ONCE. On a hill. He offered to let me pass 5 times. I didn’t. I saw a family of deer. Rushing streams. Cute little water falls. Trees. Sky. I just enjoyed it. Until we both turned off the road in opposite directions at the same time.
I spent the next 3 hours pushing a 30 pound toddler, in a stroller, around Silver Lake TWO AND A HALF TIMES. (in inappropriate footwear.) We stopped to play, feed the squirrels and we narrowly escaped being eaten by a family of ducks.
(I’m slightly (A LOT) afraid of living poultry. Not all birds. Just the ones people routinely eat. Chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, and recently discovered Quails. See? Just poultry.)
We ate our lunch on a log by the lake. (I packed a salad for myself and no fork. That was fun.) We fed most of our pretzels to the squirrels. We ran over and under and around fallen trees. We had a blast.
I don’t think he even noticed I wasn’t on my phone. I’m sure he didn’t. (because I kept shoving it in his face for pictures. (it was on airplane mode at that time.))
But I noticed.
We didn’t fight, we didn’t argue.
We just enjoyed it.