The Carousel of Happiness

This is the second month of my Happiness Project and the second month of me working on vitality.  When the option of doing the same topic for two months in a row was presented to me, initially I didn't like it.  In general I like to follow the rules.  Gretchen did one topic per month, so of course - that's how it should be done.  However...I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to in the first month.  A few of the other gals in my happiness group were repeating their first month, so I thought it was a good idea.

In general, I'm going back to my original opinion.  I don't feel like I've accomplished that much this month, so I'm not going to repeat months again (until I've gone through them all - maybe some time in between will help).  Having said all of that - one thing did work out in my favor.  I really only worked on one aspect of my vitality this month (vs. the four or five I was going to work on): scheduling!  If you know me, you know that's a big one for me and maybe it deserved it's own month.  The good news is that it paid off.  I have had some successful days and I definitely see the value in it.  This is all the lead in to tell you the story that I want to talk about.

As part of my schedule, I'm trying to fit in fun time with my girls.  Especially during the school year, it's easy for me to get bogged down in the "musts" and forget that they're still kids.  I love spontaneity, so I always think that we'll do something fun on the fly - but that never works out.  So now I've realized that I just have to fit it into my schedule.  Last week was the first week of school and we ended the week with "Field Trip Friday"!  (There will also be "Friday Fun Days" since we won't go somewhere every Friday.)

Our first field trip was to The Carousel of Happiness.  I read about it on a kids site I found on Facebook - Great Ideas for Kids - Colorado.  I didn't tell the girls about our field trip until the night before and I didn't tell them where we were going until we were half way there.  As soon as I picked Erica up from school, we headed up to Nederland.  I had never gone farther than the court house on Canyon, so I was in awe of what a beautiful drive it was.  I saw many hikers and immediately started making mental notes as to where I'll be hiking next.

I'll be honest with you - if you're looking for an all day adventure, this is not the place for you.  It is literally just a carousel.  The cool part for me was seeing the hand carved animals and taking a trip back in time - it was originally built over a hundred years ago!  The cool part for the kids was that it was a carousel.  I have to admit, I was a little nervous that it wouldn't hold their attention for too long, but they were both thrilled.  They rode it twice, then we went upstairs to watch from above and to play in the puppet theater.  We came back down and they rode one more time - loving every minute of it.

We came home after that.  It was a short trip, but it worked out since their dad was taking them golfing after he got off of work.  They want to go back and they want to stop at the waterfalls we saw on the way.  Erica loves school and she told me that since she got to go to school, have a field trip and golf - could this day get any better?  And Isabelle told me this was the best surprise she ever had. 

Now the pressure's on.  I have to find something cool to do this week.  Knowing that our warm days are going to be fading away soon, I want to do something outside.  Maybe just the water fountains on Pearl Street (which they'll love!), but I have to admit, I really enjoyed doing something unique.  Since I'm not a researcher, this will be a bit of a challenge - but I'm up to it.  With smiles like these, how can I not be?