Palisades Falls...

...and the River of No Regrets.





It would have been easier to not go. It would have been easier to find an excuse and she would have understood, after all, we are old and tired. Aubrey knows, she was there the first time and the following 499 times that we traveled with lots of little bodies in the car.





We, Matthew and I, have done our share, taken our turn, made those trips, you know the ones, in the car for hours, sometimes days. And the smells, you know that too, the smells from the back seat and the whiny voices, "I'm hungry", "I need to pee" again, and the never ending "are we there yet?". And of course, there are the Pringle chips ground into a fine powder under foot, the bubble gum thrown from the window still clinging to the side of the car, trails of soda dripping down the console and apple cores that roll around the floor every time we stop.

However, if there's one thing I learned about life after the death of my dad, it is to live a life with no regrets. The river of regret that becomes so deep for some that it swallows them up and they drown in the sadness of the past with opportunities missed or time not spent wisely. I don't want to be there, in that river, having missed out on time with my husband, children or grandchildren.

Matthew suggested we create a diversion for the Tyler's, what with Chris heading back to Afghanistan. Create a little sunshine in the black cloud over their family. At first I wasn't sure I should go. Car trips aggravate kidney pain.

I knew that if I didn't go with Matthew and Aubrey I would be in that river of regret. I knew I would hear about their fun adventure and wish I had been there to remember the fun with them.

In the end it was a wise decision.

We hiked to Palisades waterfall, marvelled in the granduer of God's creations and then cooled our toes in the stream on the way back to civilization.

Thanks, Matthew, for making life beautiful.