'Cause that's the way things happen on the Polar Express!

"The thing about trains... It doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on."

Isn't that so true in life? Just taking that chance? Seeing what is out there?

I feel like that has been our life this year. I have been able to travel with Tom so much more this year than ever and I have enjoyed it tremendously. We have gotten to experience new things, ridden horses, played in the snow, hiked everyday, played on a park with a MERRY-GO-ROUND (the highlight of the trips for the kids), eaten Elk meat almost everyday, basically just lived a different life. Our last adventure in Colorado was getting a chance to ride The Polar Express. We didn't make reservations in time to get really great seats, but we loved it just the same.

Watching the train roll in....

Better have your ticket...

Not the best picture, but I'll take it... We didn't have film for our good camera so the digital will have to do....

My life...

"Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see."

I love that the world still holds magic for my children. That simple things, like riding a train, can make them believe in some of the good things in life. Even if just for a little while longer.

Cimmaron Princess

Today, as we watched the "cowboys" wrangle up the cows, the boys were asked if they wanted to ride a horse. Both boys jumped at the opportunity and were so excited to ride "Cimmaron Princess" was described as a "DIVA".

Cam even got in on some of the action.

Wearing "Cowboy" Ralph's hat...

Ralph (who is leading the mare) owns the ranch we are staying on and is SUPER nice.

My new favorite thing...

Yeah, it's a poem. So?

Miracles

Walt Whitman

Why, who makes much of a miracle?

As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,

Or stand under trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love,

Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,

Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,

Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,

Or animals feeding in the fields,

Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown,

or of stars shining so quiet and bright,

Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;

These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,

The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,

Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,

Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,

The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the ships with men in them,

What stranger miracles are there?

Sometimes we stumble on things that we need, sometimes they find us. This found me. I feel blessed to have all that I have. Sure, I struggle as we all do, but I am trying to find the miracles in every day, to be thankful this month for all that I am blessed with. But why should it be only this month? I wish I didn't need reminding.

PS... Camryn has started saying Thank You... Cutest thing EVER...