everyday of my life there are little wow moments. times when i remember how beautiful the world is or how powerful love is. then there are BIG wow moments. when you are just floored by the craziness of the situation. the first time going to the tony awards...my first night hike...and such. today was one of the biggest wow moments of my life. Orlando made the official announcement today: Kyle and I are in the top 10 for 67 Days of Smiles!!! my heart can't stop racing! I am thrilled to head down to Orlando next week for interviews and fun-filled activities! follow every step of our journey in the minutes and day to come!

www.kyleandstaceysmile.com

my summers before i moved to the city were spent in the michigan woods. teaching kids how to canoe, telling stories around a camp fire, and making s'mores. those were the most amazing summers of my life: the most amazing experiences.

at night far after the sun went down we would take walks in the woods. the trees were so full of leaves that even the moonlight had a hard time coming through. before your eyes adjusted to the darkness it would be hard to even see your hand if you put it right in front of your eyes. eventually you would see. but never clearly, just a hazy outline of the path and trees. maybe a few red raccoon eyes here and there. and still we walked. never really knowing what was 5 feet in front of us. we trusted that we knew the path well enough from our hikes during the day. you trusted. and it was beautiful. in the simplest of ways.

to be there. with the moon. the shooting stars. the maple trees. and with the darkness. to know every time we started a night hike that my eyes would adjust and it would be fine. the path in front of me would show up as i walk.

it will show up. it always does in life. i trust.

when i was little i would often put an eye-patch on and run into the woods with my friends to explore. we would climb trees, hunt worms, and try to catch fish with our hands. and for all the many times we explored the same patch of woods we always found something new.

as i grow-up it's funny to see how little i have changed. kyle and i spent this past weekend exploring the city...as always we found so many new and amazing things! my favorite was three old sail boats, all lined up against an old dock on the west side. we climbed up to the highest point on the largest boat, right under the sail and layed down. looking at the big dark sky and dreaming. daring to say what life would look like in our wildest imaginations (which is actually pretty close to how life really is). and we found shooting stars and wish upon them (by shooting stars i mean airplanes...there are actually no shooting stars in new york city).

it was magical.

i am going to make it a life goal to never stop exploring and wishing on shooting stars. i hope you do the same...look up...dream...wish...believe...life is what you make it to be.