Even though I didn’t get rest on my trip, I did get something else that I had almost forgotten I needed . . . Fun. Even though we were sleep deprived Friday, we carried on with our plans to hike up to Anna Ruby falls and explore Helen. Apparently as much as dogs don’t like sleeping in strange places, they do like hiking in them. They sniffed and explored and ran up that trail like crazy. And we were right behind them. The kids were climbing rocks and fording streams. My guy and I were taking pictures of wildflowers and identifying them (hey we are over forty now, don’t judge the boring nature of our fun!) [caption id="attachment_972" align="aligncenter" width="560"] We’d never seen this kind of trillium before. Our over forty selves found it fascinating![/caption]   We walked around the tourist town of Helen and took goofy pictures of the German hound in the “Bavarian Village” of north Georgia. It was too kitschy not to love. [caption id="attachment_974" align="aligncenter" width="560"] no dogs were injured in the taking of goofy photos. All dogs were compensated with pieces of sausage and apple strudel.[/caption] It was later that night when we were playing “Would you Rather” while waiting for our pizza and hummus that it hit me. While I sat on the deck of the restaurant under a blue spring sky listening to my family’s answers to “Would you rather be a mermaid or a tree?”, I realized that even though I was still tired, I was having a blast. It was a beautiful day. The birds were singing. My kids were making me laugh like crazy. And even though I’ve been married to my husband for 17 years, I was still learning new things about him. (You’d rather be a tree? Really?) In fact out of all the fun moments during last weekend, I think that was my favorite. We were doing something so simple, just waiting for dinner. But our trip had reminded us to let go of the all the doing for while and let ourselves just have some fun.

So as we head into this weekend with its soccer games and dance performances and gardening and everything else, I hope we can remember to take some time out from all the doing and just be together.

Be silly. Be curious. Be open to new experiences.  For fun doesn’t just happen on trip or in the big moments. It is there waiting for us in the everyday. Sometimes we just have to remember how to find it again.

May you find a fun surprise in the midst of your upcoming weekend.

Care to share your favorite everyday moment of fun? Write it down in the comments below.]]>