Awestruck.

 

 THIS is what I get to look at outside of my hotel room tonight. 

Coming here to Keystone, South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore was soooooo worth it. Amazing. It literally took my breath away.

All my life I always heard and saw things about Mt. Rushmore, I knew of the hype, so when I had the chance to see it for myself, I hoped and prayed that it wouldn't be a let down like some of the other landmarks I've seen.

It wasn't. 

As I was driving through the Black Hills of South Dakota getting closer and closer, seeing all the signs for "Black Hills Gold Cave Tours", zip lining and of course, Mt. Rushmore 3 miles....2 miles....and then seeing it tower above me in the sky - I was actually intimidated, breathless...in complete awe.

 

 

I see this quote often, but I never really liked it or got it, until just recently.

The first time in my life that I ever felt this way: where my breath was literally taken away, my heart stopped and butterflies totally engulfed my insides was just yesterday in fact. When I called Riley and he answered with; "I want kids" 

Now, neither of us wanted kids for AWHILE, at least until long after we move back to the states from Italy. And even then, we were both sort of on the fence from the very beginning as far as whether we even wanted them at all....But when I visited Oregon, especially after spending some time with my friend Nicole and her girls, and my cousin Steph and her husband Bobby, my heart just, changed. Just like that. I'm not even sure if it was spending time with those people...It was just as sudden as it could get. Boom, 

I want kids.

When he answered the phone like that, and after I determined he was being serious, what came out of my mouth was;  

we can't BOTH be ready at the same time!! :/

I guess it was like, is this really happening? ARE we both ready at the same time?

 I'm reminded of the quote, that talks about us telling our plans to God and him just laughing...We can have a plan, but make sure you're prepared for it to be a tentative plan. And we can have a destination, but be open to taking a different road, or staying at a different hotel. Sometimes being "mood motivated" isn't such a bad thing. We can't be such sticklers about our plans, lists and routes...most likely, if you let God do his thing in your life, it won't turn out exactly how you thought it was going to anyway. So go out there, have goals and dreams, do your thing, but know, that, happiness is not the destination, it's the journey.

 So, the "plan" is, to wait until the last year or so of our time in Italy to start trying to have kids.

The most recent time I felt breathless, like actually, physically breathless for a second, just because of pure admiration, was today. Seeing the faces of those presidents carved into that cliff.

Now, to complete my "All American" cross country road trip, I need to see the Lincoln memorial! ;)