The Acrobat

Today was a perfect mellow day.  We reached that part of the trip when we stop feeling anxious about what's happening back home, and just sink into the moment that is happening now.  We came up to the farm to send off an important email, and then planned on taking the kids to do something fun.  It turned out that we didn't have to go anywhere.  We ended up laying in the grass under the orange trees, and watching the kids playing with my mom.  It felt like the first moment that we'd had without the kids crawling all over us.  It felt like vacation.

Tessie decided that it would be great fun to run sprints between us and my mom.  My mom was standing at the bottom of the hill, and we were at the top.  Tes was barefoot, and absolutely loving running in the grass.  She ran up the hill, arms flying, and crashed into Nick's arms.  Then she turned around, and ran down the hill to my mom, our shouts of caution following her.  With every run down the hill she grew braver, and we grew more concerned.  By the fourth run, she was sprinting.  When she was about half way down the hill, Nick called out to her to be careful.  Before the phrase was completed, we watched in slow motion as her feet left the ground.

She went straight forward, head first.  Her momentum was such that she did a full flip.  At one point she was completely upside down.  Her feet were pointed to the sky, and only the top of her head was making contact with the ground.  She was facing back towards us, her eyes as big as saucers.  That moment seemed to last an eternity.  Then she was on the ground, screaming, and I was racing down the hill to scoop her up.

Amazingly, the screaming only lasted a few moments, then she was running around again.  The only thing she had to show for her aerobatics was a small red scrape on her forehead.  I have never seen anything quite so spectacular, and I hope not to again.  Even though it was a little terrifying, it was also simply beautiful.