Some of the sweetest times have come right up against some of the hardest. After our rough patch in Moab, we made good timing getting to Salt Lake City. I had scoped out some first-come-first-served campgrounds in the American Fork Canyon. We headed up the windy road. I was lusting after the creek that the road paralleled. Joe was sweating wondering if we’d make it with our unreliable (brand new) transmission. We made it! Only to find all the campsites were taken. So we turned around, a bit defeated and scoped out a picnic spot. There were gobs yet we somehow picked the one that had little to no bank on the stream and you had to slide on your booty to access it. Yet we got there with our lunch provisions and had the heartiest lunch, letting our feet dangle in the cold, always healing water, throwing rocks and looking for fish. We’d get back on the road and it would turn into a magical evening yet ahead but for now our defeat had become what on any day I will always take – a picnic lunch with my family on a beautiful summer day on the “banks” of a cool stream.

And I’ve noticed something. When I sit in the back with Sam and stare and smile at him, he tends to stare and smile back at me. Similarly, if I let a crisis be a crisis with the kids, they feel crisis, but if I can model adventure, they feel adventure and quite simply a really great picnic spot.

Quick BBQ Chicken Sandwiches (courtesy of Bess and Trader Joe’s):

Buy pre-cooked chicken and a bottle of your fave BBQ sauce. Chop up and mix. Put on individual ciabatta rolls and serve with baby carrots, a plum, and some chips.