Saying good bye

 There are moments when your life changes without notice and you are forever changed.  There are times when your life is going to change, you have the foresight, and you can plan for these changes.  Such has it been with the events in my life as of late.  My life has been forever changed.  I knew it was going to happen and as such took time to prepare for it.  But as I found last Wednesday, you can never fully prepare yourself for major changes in life.  

We got family pictures taken.  I was pleased with how they turned out and can't believe how grown up our family looks.

My son, Justin and I took several hikes together.  I will treasure those times for the rest of my life.  We talked and hiked and struggled and saw sights.  Golden times really.

He shared with me places that are special to him.

This old sheepherder's cabin at the top of a mountain. We saw a moose on that trip and several bald eagles.

 His dad and I took several hikes in the mountain behind our house at least once a week.

 

He took me to a couple of mines.  One hike in particular was extremely steep.  It was the hardest hike I have ever been on in my life.  It started to snow right as we got down.  We were lucky to go on that day because the snow hasn't stopped since then and we wouldn't have had another day to go.

These are the remains of the old hotel that used to be up by the mine at the turn of the 1900's.

I really dislike small dark places and so it was a miracle that I went in as far as we did.  I humored him though and we were in there for about 10 minutes.

And then last Wednesday we took him to the Missionary Training Center.  It was a very emotional day.  The car ride there was very quiet.  I kept thinking back to the day I brought him home from the hospital.  I thought about the days of him learning to talk and walk and him going to school.  He has grown into such a fine young man.  And so it is with very mixed emotions that I am proud of the man he has grown into.  I have wanted this for him his whole life.  It's what we do as parents. We raise them to be independent and successful.  And yet the sadness that I experienced as he walked away was so consuming.  I was not prepared for it.  

Running has provided me with a way to run off some of the anxiety.  Running alone has been good for me to think clearly and running with my closest friends has allowed me time to sort out my emotions and be able to express them.  How grateful I am for running and the sense of relief that it has brought to me.

Later this week:  a giveaway that you won't want to miss!