All the leaves are... yellow and the sky is... blue

They are working on the highway close to our house. They are making the highway wider and it is my understanding that they are making a local highway – one where you can get on and off – and a passing through highway, where you can just buzz through. Part of this involves revamping all the exits ramps. Here was a recent conversation in our car – Hey look they changed where we exit for our exit. Really? Yeah and you just passed it. Well I will just go to the next exit. That would seem like a good solution except that they closed that exit. Really?? Yes. Ok I will just go to the next exit. That will work but it is an exit to another highway so you will have to go down a way to turn around. Well what if I just go to the exit after that? Well that exit is about 15 miles away. Ok the highway exit it is!
For awhile we decided to just avoid the highway and take the back roads to get around. Not so much because of the exit issue but because of all the slowed traffic on the highway which was a result of the constantly changing road pattern which led to numerous accidents. But occasionally we just forget and end up on the highway.
Then a few weeks back they closed our exit. Now we have to get off the exit before ours or at least we thought!
Last week Eric unintentionally ended up on the highway. You may assume he was on autopilot because he was. And since he was on autopilot, he missed the exit before our exit since ours is closed. However he discovered that the exit after our exit, the one that was closed previously, is now open. And he discovered two more very cool things. One – taking this exit is actually a quicker way home then taking the one before our normal exit. And two, this exit goes right by Duke Park. Now why is that so cool? Because they have renovated Duke Park and now it is THE coolest park in Durham.
Today, I threw caution to the wind. I got on the highway, I passed our exit and got off at the next and the kids and I stopped and played at Duke Park. When I got out of the car and approached the new jungle gym, I had to restrain myself from just running full out like a kid and jumping on it. And the only reason I restrained myself is because the slides attached to the jungle gym are the totally enclosed kind; the ones that protect your children from falling off the slide on the way down. The kind that large children can slide down but not large women. Especially when the slide has two, TWO twists in it. So I restrained myself and watched my children gallop down the hill, then race up the hill and then jump on the jungle gym. We had a great time playing, or watching in my case.
And then we had a beautiful moment. The wind blew through the trees and a great mass of leaves flew off the trees and then floated down over the playground. It snowed leaves. It was beautiful. Look Olivia, Look up at the sky and the leaves. Oh momma they are gorgeous she said and Jack chimed in – leaves falling, leaves falling! I wish I had had a camera with me so I could show you the beautiful blue sky as a back drop to the tiny yellow leaves floating through the sky and landing all around my children. Pure joy! Who knew one could get to pure joy through a highway detour. God is great.