Life has been quite a roller coaster ride this week. Monday we packed for our all-inclusive trip to the Dominican Republic with our boys. A wonderful, fabulous treat for our family that we’d dreamed about for years – the finances were provided at Christmas – an amazing gift.

We arrived at the airport to find out our trip was delayed by four hours… ugh. But we rolled with it – our flight was supposed to leave at 10pm – so we drove around with the boys and they DID sleep for a while in the van, then in the airport lounge. We woke them up to board the plane at 2am, they were grumpy but excited, we were exhausted but happy, and we all crashed an hour into the flight. We arrived at our resort a little late, but in great spirits, put on our bathing suits immediately and headed for the beach, sand and sunshine – glorious!

The next day we received the very sad news that my husband’s grandfather passed away. Staying for the remainder of our trip was not an option, we wanted to be with our family, NEEDED to be with our family, so again we rolled with it. We looked at all our options for flying home, the best one being to leave Friday at dinner time. This meant we still got to enjoy another two days at the resort, and we’d be home in plenty of time for the funeral.

We did enjoy the rest of our trip, soaking up the fun and sun, and making lasting memories with our boys. And we did come home early, the funeral is tomorrow morning and we are surrounded by family – it’s amazing how so many people from all over the place can come together in such a short period of time.

There’s been many ups and downs this week, and the ride isn’t over yet. But I’ve learned that life is unpredictable, plans should be made but with the knowledge they could change at any minute. And that doesn’t mean the plans are ruined, just different. I’ve learned to roll with it, take life one day at a time, find the enjoyment as much as you can, because one day it will be time for the ride to end.

I hope to look back and know that the ups and downs balanced each other out, that I held my arms up in the air to enjoy the ride as much as I could, and I wasn’t afraid to go on the roller coaster that went UPSIDE DOWN! That I didn’t play it safe… but rolled with it instead.