At least if I have to get older I will do it in my favorite place

Grand Canyon baby!!!

Is anyone else sick of hearing me talk about the Grand Canyon?  You are?  Well get OVER it, or get used to it because that's just how it is!!!!

This Sunday I am turning 29 years old.  Deep down I kind of want to cringe a little bit since I am getting so close to 30.  After all I still feel like I should be 20! But I won't complain about it here.  I'll save that for the people that have to see me in real life this weekend:)

There are actually some benefits to getting older as I see it.  I am happier and more fulfilled now that I have lived a little bit more of life and experienced some things that have given a perspective I didn't have 10 years ago.  I am actually in better shape now than I was 10 years ago.  Don't get me wrong 5 babies are not a bodies best friend, but they have made me appreciate my body in a way I never could have at age 20.  Nothing is as smooth or tight as it used to be but I have more strength and stamina and I am healthier too.  I look at myself and I honestly cant help but think that for an almost 30 year old mom of 5 I'm not doing too badly:)  I can hike and bike and run and tone and it all still works even on an old lady like me!

I love being a mom of older kids too.  I love the babies, but the day to day work of having tiny ones can be draining in a way that's so hard some days.  So I am beginning to see how having a 5, 6, and 8 year old and on beyond is awesome.  They are such neat little personalities and its like a new parenting challenge everyday.  Life is throwing me something harder than teething and poopy diapers and as much as I complain when he who will not be named gets sent to the principal's office, it is quite an interesting challenge that brings me a lot opportunities for personal growth;)

I also appreciate my parents, and other important adults in my life, more the older I get.  I know you begin that "wow my parents are people too" at the end of high school/ college, and then it gets clearer again when you have your own children.  But I still feel like each year I grow wiser from the things they taught me and continue to teach me.  It's kind of like I'm seeing them and the lessons they gave through a different set of eyes.  The eyes of an old person... just kidding... but there really is something to this aging thing ok.  That's the point I'm trying to make.

Anyway this isn't at all what I thought I was going to write when I sat down here but there it is.  I am going to leave it at that and end on the note that I am so happy that I get to be at the Grand Canyon on my birthday.  Maybe someday when I'm even older and wiser I will stop attempting crazy torturous things like R2R2R in under 24 hours... but judging from my father in law's example probably not!