For example.
My dream is to live an athletic life. But as it so turns out, being athletic is not something that comes naturally to me. It's something I have to work really hard at. I try and try and try again before I really pick up on something new. I make goals that seem laughable, and then I push myself really freaking hard. I wake up at 5:30 in the morning not at all because it's easy for me, but rather because I know that's the only time I have to train. It's never easy getting out of bed that early. But when I PR on a run and find myself hitting mile split times that I never thought I'd be able to, I feel so freaking good. It makes me want to set new goals and try even harder. When I master that climb, the one where the rock was just out of my reach, so I continued to try and fall until finally I jumped just far enough and finally caught that rock. When I finally got up on the wakeboard after trying and failing and trying again, even though it scares me to death. When I am able to perfectly execute a yoga pose that I couldn't even touch last month, or hold a two minute plank while remembering the days that I couldn't hold a plank for thirty measly seconds, those moments make all of the hard work worth it.
My dream is to live an adventurous life. And adventures, well good grief, they are a lot of hard work. I have two kids under five years old, remember? When we take them with us on our adventures, it's work. I have to remember to pack everything but the kitchen sink, only sometimes even with the kitchen sink, you know what I mean? And then I have to keep them entertained. And I have to keep them safe. And I have to teach them slowly. I have to stop and change diapers and answer a million "but why" questions along the way. I have to dig deep, sometimes really dang deep, to find all of the patience that I can find as to make sure that I am allowing them to have a fun adventure at our sides.
And when we don't take them with us, while the actual adventures are much less stress that way, it's still never easy. I miss them. I think about them and I worry about them. Adventures in and of themselves, with or without kids, they aren't easy. They are a lot of packing. Sometimes they are a lot of money. They are a lot of preparation and planning and experience and practice and failing and trying and going again. It would always be easier to stay home and watch movies, we don't adventure because it's easy. We adventure for the memories and the beauty and the experiences we have when we get past how much hard work it is.
My dreams are not easy, but they are so worth it. They are always, always worth all of that hard work. And even though it's not the easy thing to do, I am really living my dreams and it feels so good.
This weekend the hubs and I took a short trip to go camping kidless in Idaho. It was just us and Rockie, which made for a quiet trip! It's very refreshing to have some quality time with the hubs. It's quite wonderful to carry on uninterrupted conversations. I almost forget what that's like sometimes!
Late Friday night, while we sat around the campfire, our sweet little Rockie had quite an unfortunate run in with a skunk, which resulted in her being sprayed SMACK in the face. SURPRISE! But I do believe she will stay far away from the next skunk she sees. Lessons learned, I suppose.
We also had a short run in with the cutest fox I ever did see, granted the only fox I have ever seen in person, but my goodness that animal was stunning! He came right up to our campsite and let us admire him for a minute before he disappeared quietly into the hillside. Have you ever seen a fox before? I mean, in person? They are so dang beautiful.
We set up camp next to what seemed to be a very nice couple, and while I do think they were very nice, I also think we ended up with some bum luck when the misses kicked the very, very drunk mister out of the camper at midnight, who, in his angry drunken stupor, talked to himself very loudly and threw beer cans around the campsite very obnoxiously and slammed his truck door closed a million times an hour for the remainder of the night. I kid you not, every time I thought he might be done and finally pass out, he kept right on going. I think he finally passed out sometime after 5:00 that morning, and so the hubs and I did not get more than a wink of sleep.
But, you know, memories and what not.
We finally dragged ourselves from our sleeping bags at 7:30 that morning to brew some much needed coffee in the percolator and cook some crispy bacon, while munching on sugary blueberry muffins, which all elevated our sleepy moods very quickly. Because there is not much I love more than bacon and coffee in the morning around the campfire.
After giving Rockie a good swim in the river to lessen some of that skunk smell, midmorning we took off to kayaking the Oneida narrows, something that's been on our to-do list since we got our kayaks. And let me tell you, that did not disappoint! I want to go back right now!
Don't be fooled, it was scary at times. It always is. In fact, as we were ready to put in my nerves had me like: WHAT ARE YOU DOING, TURN AROUND WHILE YOU STILL CAN!! And by the end of our run I had filled my quota on swear words for the day. (Because come on, nothing will keep you from panicking in the midst of kayaking through rapids like a really loud swear word, you know? It just makes me feel better I suppose.) At the rough spots I stayed behind Dan enough that I could watch and mimic his every move. He would point at which direction to go and which rocky rapids to avoid. There was one big rapid that was between some large, rather nasty rocks, and that one gave me a little scare. I never fail to be humbled after kayaking down the river while also, the adrenaline rush! The accomplishment! The high!! I'm pretty sure we both had crazy smiles pasted to our faces the entire time.
It truly was such a fun weekend. I will never get tired of these adventures with my sweet, bearded mountain man by my side! I'm so glad to have him.
Life is so good and the mountains are so beautiful. Get out there and get you some! It's worth it!
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