Xperience

Count-down:  19 days until departure for Alaskan Adventure!

I love going on vacation.  I love having time where our whole family is together, with no outside distractions. Nothing that takes our attention away from one another.  That is more important to me than the actual place we visit.  Though the kids have said that our more experiential trips have been their favorites.  Seeing new sights and exploring the unknown has been more memorable to them than our beach vacations. There is something special about being adventurous as a unit.

It’s all about the experience.  What we experience together is forever woven into the fabric of our family’s history and brings us closer.  

A buffalo, for us, instantly brings to mind the time in Yellowstone when a big bull walked right up to our car window and Alyssa blurted out, “Look at that bad boy!”.  Say “Sea Lion” and the McKendry family brain is transported to St.Thomas where we swam with Omar, the sea lion.  

Even when the kids are all grown up and have moved to various parts of the country, they will still have these links back to our little family of five.  Hopefully they will smile and their hearts will be warmed by the memories we made together.  

So despite all the difficulties we may face driving 82 hours to Alaska, I’m thrilled to be etching forever on our brains a whole new set of family experiences that we can draw from later in life.

Moab = driving ATVs through desert canyons 

Kathy :)

Almost There

We have made it 2100 miles across the country, through endless fields of corn, golden prairies, desolate mountain passes, and stately pine forests. In Yellowstone National Park I was in awe of the most foreign landscape I had ever scene.  It was like we stepped back into the Jurassic Period with pots of boiling mud, spewing geysers, and gasses leaking from every fissure in the Earth.

    

I swear a T-Rex was lurking in there somewhere, but all we saw were bison.

But now our cross-country adventure is almost done.  We only have 310 miles left on the journey to our new home.  We've had 8 great days together exploring and it's a little sad to be approaching the last day.  
It's the end of a great chapter of our lives, but the next chapter, with its plethora of blank pages, lies within reach.  I can't wait to see what will be written on those pages.

Kathy

How are things going with you? I'd love to hear what new chapters have begun in your lives.

I want to thank all the people who left great comments on my Insecure Writer's post.  They helped me quite a bit and I'm excited again to be working on my novel.

And ooohh yeah, I finally hit 100 followers!  Thanks to Sarah Perry over at the The Restless Writer for becoming #100. Check out her great site and give her some love.

Have a great weekend!

XPERIENCE

It's all about experiences.  My everyday life isn't all that exciting.  It's filled with cooking, grocery shopping,  work (I'm lucky I love my job!),  etc.  Of course there is lots of fun with the kids and husband sprinkled in, but what stands out the most in my life are the times where I ventured out of my cozy comfort zone and tried something new.  I haven't always been successful in my new endeavors like when I decided to learn to play the cello at age 37 -I'm still not very good- but I enjoy playing and I've gained a new respect for anyone able to play an instrument well.  I grow a little bit as a person through each experience.  My trip to India with my husband was decided on a whim.  I never thought I would travel there, but I did and it has opened up a whole new world for me.  Now I can't seem to read enough about India's history, food and people.
I will never be the same and I think that is a good thing.

Have you gained by trying something new recently?

Kathy    


My Random Thoughts on the Letter "X"

Though I think the letter "X" looks pretty cool, it seems like a useless letter, at least in the English language.  It can't start a word without having the letter "E" precede it, or it sounds like a "Z" as in "Xenon".  You can replace it  anytime with either "ks" or "Z" except in words like "luxury" where you would have to replace it with "gzh" or something.  And how did anyone come up with "X" standing in for the word "Christ" as in X-mas?