Last Monday, on what would have been our nineteenth wedding anniversary, I stood with our children looking down at the Grand Canyon. Keeping a promise that you and I had made them a couple of years before –that we would make our next family adventure a visit to the Grand Canyon. I missed you and wished you could have been here to laugh at the boys’ comments. If you could ask Ethan, he would tell you that “It’s just a really big ditch, Dad.”
I lingered at the edge longer than they wanted. It was warm, and they were ready for ice cream. I could have stayed all day and watched the sun set.
Already on this westward journey, I had navigated across seven states (if you count ours- which I did since we live in the northeastern quadrant of it.) I had driven to the top of Pike’s Peak and back down—all without overheating the engine or the brakes, thank you very much. While we were at the top, we decided to try the famous high-altitude doughnuts. Out of habit, I ordered five. I didn’t even realize I had done it until Megan asked me whom the extra one was for. None of us could bring ourselves to eat it.
I wish you could have been with us to see all the tumbleweeds in Utah and Arizona. The kids thought they were so amusing, rolling across the road ahead of us and getting all tangled up in the fence so that it looked as though someone had lined them up like wispy round hay bales. Sometimes one would roll under the car in front of us (when there was another car, that is) and explode into bits as it hit the undercarriage.
I wish you could have been there at the Lincoln Log Cabin in Illinois when just as Henry had finished teasing Megan for wigging out as a cicada buzzed by her, one landed on his shoulder and he ran around screaming his head off. We all laughed for what seemed like twenty minutes after that.
We saw so many beautiful places, and I think the kids will remember this adventure for many years to come. I know you would be proud of us, proud of me. And though you couldn’t be with us in person, you were there in our hearts. We sure do miss you.
