Roots, fallen leaves, tree stumps, and rocks.
Scattered in the path ahead of us.
The twists and turns through the forest took us further and further up the mountain.
We had to tread carefully. Watching our step and navigating around the obstacles.
All while taking in the vast beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
I stumbled a couple of times, stubbed my toe on a rock or two.
I slipped on an icy rock near the waterfall.
In more than a few spots, I wished for a guardrail, and that my boys wouldn't go so close to the edge.
They saw a black bear in the path ahead of us.
Fortunately, it wandered off into the woods and away from us before we got too close.
It was exhilarating, and terrifying all at the same time.
A beautiful, awe-inspiring, nearly six-mile round-trip hike to one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen.
I thought about all of the rocks we've had in our paths the last few years.
The challenges we've had to navigate.
And how far these boys have come.
To be able to spend this time with them, to watch them explore, to see the way they are maturing and growing up, is pretty amazing.
Like those rocks in our path, of so many different shapes and sizes, we are three very different people.
All of us trying to find our way through this life without stumbling and falling too many times.
We don't always get along, we frustrate each other, we argue, we get annoyed (especially when we're hungry).
Pretty sure that happens in all families, if we're being honest.
It's hard for me, as their mom, to let go sometimes. To acknowledge that one of them is legally an adult, and the other is just a few years away.
They don't realize yet how it feels to see them from this perspective.
They will someday.
It was pretty awesome to watch them up on those trails. To see them exploring, climbing the rocks, navigating those obstacles together.
It was pretty awesome off the trails too as we explored the city.
It warmed my heart to hear them laughing together, being silly and goofing around in the gift shops, holding up bizarre items they found.
And it made me just a little bit sad on the drive home.
As I looked at them, asleep in the dark car, I thought about how they were both too big for me to carry inside and tuck them into bed when we got to the hotel.
Instead, I woke them, and two groggy teenagers begrudgingly grabbed what they needed and walked in with me, eyes barely open.
The rocks in our paths have changed shapes and sizes throughout the course of these boys' lives.
Some very small, easy to step over.
Others much larger, requiring patience and sure footing as we made our way around them.
All of them teaching us something.
How to be strong and courageous.
How to take things one step at a time.
How to be patient (even when traffic is at a standstill).
And more than anything else, how to appreciate the simple beauty of life.
There will always be rocks in our path.
Even when - maybe especially when - these boys move out and go off on their own.
They'll slip and fall a time or two themselves.
But then they'll get back up and keep going.
Continuing on that path to wherever life will take them.
I'm grateful to have been beside them this far on their journey.
And for the amazing views we've had along the way.
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