driving back from utah from our third year of skiing we slid into a wyoming rest stop. the kids and i took first shift in the bathrooms. upon returning to the van, we saw no sign of marty. i asked bella if she was in the bathroom with her. bella said no. we scanned the space looking for a sign then a goofy bird sound had us all look over our heads where, high in a tree, sat the children's mother. it is in these moments where marty acts like a sixteen year old rather than the forty-something she is that i know i landed well in life and makes me look forward to our post-kids trips together, assuming of course she doesn't rend a hip climbing down from a tree or such and cut one of our holidays short.