Ride the Ride
"It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. " ~Joyce Maynard
We have been collecting a rather peculiar set of family portraits. It started with a flume ride in South Korea, with our good friends and our oldest child who was then four. The picture, captured on the ride, is of four adults and one very thrilled child, sliding down a water flume with the wind in their hair and looks of amazement and excitement. There are many of these types of pictures. Most recently, there are four with our entire family. The youngest hit a milestone this weekend by being old enough to ride every ride at the park. With much pomp and circumstance, we rode the rides. Once we finished, we headed straight to the photo shop to buy our souvenir.
You can tell a lot about our family by looking at these pictures. I'm inevitably the one with a huge smile on my face. I love the feeling of being on a ride. As the car clicks up the hill and prepares to shoot you into who knows what series of loops and curves, the knowing that whatever is about to happen is completely out of my control is a great reminder. All I can do is smile, and hold on for dear life, and keep my eyes open.
Vic is always in front. He likes to face fear head on with a smile on his face, as if to challenge it. There are no knuckles on the safety bars, there is no doubt, he is simply leading the way. Our oldest smiles too. He is subdued, sometimes he has his hands in the air, but mostly it is the look of freedom and adventure. Our middle child, the girl, always has her hands up. She will ride the ride to it's fullest every time. She is the first to want to get back on again. The middle child convinces us all that we want to keep going, then she reminds us that the picture will be priceless. The youngest of the family looks like he is saying something in every picture. When I ask him what he is saying, he inevitably tells me that is it an exclamation of joy. "This is Awesome." "Oh Yeah". I am sure he is trying out all of the words that he isn't allowed to say at home. Either way, he rides with his eyes and his mouth, wide open.
The family portraits of the subdued kind are beautiful in their own right, but I love the ones we are collecting. We are a family of adventurers. We are a family of thrill takers. We are a family that is in it for the experience and the journey, no matter where the ride takes us.
We have been collecting a rather peculiar set of family portraits. It started with a flume ride in South Korea, with our good friends and our oldest child who was then four. The picture, captured on the ride, is of four adults and one very thrilled child, sliding down a water flume with the wind in their hair and looks of amazement and excitement. There are many of these types of pictures. Most recently, there are four with our entire family. The youngest hit a milestone this weekend by being old enough to ride every ride at the park. With much pomp and circumstance, we rode the rides. Once we finished, we headed straight to the photo shop to buy our souvenir.
You can tell a lot about our family by looking at these pictures. I'm inevitably the one with a huge smile on my face. I love the feeling of being on a ride. As the car clicks up the hill and prepares to shoot you into who knows what series of loops and curves, the knowing that whatever is about to happen is completely out of my control is a great reminder. All I can do is smile, and hold on for dear life, and keep my eyes open.
Vic is always in front. He likes to face fear head on with a smile on his face, as if to challenge it. There are no knuckles on the safety bars, there is no doubt, he is simply leading the way. Our oldest smiles too. He is subdued, sometimes he has his hands in the air, but mostly it is the look of freedom and adventure. Our middle child, the girl, always has her hands up. She will ride the ride to it's fullest every time. She is the first to want to get back on again. The middle child convinces us all that we want to keep going, then she reminds us that the picture will be priceless. The youngest of the family looks like he is saying something in every picture. When I ask him what he is saying, he inevitably tells me that is it an exclamation of joy. "This is Awesome." "Oh Yeah". I am sure he is trying out all of the words that he isn't allowed to say at home. Either way, he rides with his eyes and his mouth, wide open.
The family portraits of the subdued kind are beautiful in their own right, but I love the ones we are collecting. We are a family of adventurers. We are a family of thrill takers. We are a family that is in it for the experience and the journey, no matter where the ride takes us.
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