The best vacation of my life? Everyday since retirement.

When I worked driving school bus all those 23 years I would look forward to Saturdays. The best moment of the week was Friday night when I could push my alarm button off and sleep in on Saturday morning until the ripe old hour of 7AM, the normal time for normal people.
I've been so blessed to be retired early that I've never taken it for granted. I tell my Heavenly Father thank you every single day as I say my prayers.
We don't have a lot of money but we have sufficient for our needs and a comfortable retirement.  We don't need to have any more than we already have.
 I remember at the first family reunion that I hosted about 20 years ago while living in Missoula, and my cousin Les Diede's answer to one of the get to know you games we played.  His answer to the question of what was his favorite vacation, was that every single day since he graduated high school has been his favorite vacation. I guess he didn't like school to the point that he's had the best vacation of his life every single day since his graduation day.
For me now I contemplate that thought and if I had to answer that same question today it would be a very similar answer.
I believe that for me every single day since I retired at the age of 54 and got to move here to our beautiful home in the mountains of Idaho; this has been my best vacation. I never thought anywhere could be as beautiful as our old home of Missoula, but now I'm living in an even more beautiful area.
Now those of my friends who know me well know that I'm not overly fond of winter.  This new area we are living in has a lot milder winters than even Missoula had.  So of course I love that about our home here and it gives extra bonus points for our retirement here.
Each day I look out my window or drive down our gravel road and look at the unbelievable scenic views, I realize just how blessed I truly am.  Not only to have gotten to retire early but to be living here in Idaho.
I have my best friends as my neighbors and we get to do fun things almost on a daily basis.  We swim in Gail's pond, (which we got to do today), we go on hikes, we ride our 4 wheelers to each others houses and it's just a way of life to jump on them and take off for a ride up into the mountains.  I never quit noticing my view of the beautiful area we get to live in and when I drive down our road or up the road on the 4 wheeler my breath is taken away each and every time.
Today was so nice at 90 degrees, total sunshine, teaching music to an older couple who are learning to play together, then coming back home in the afternoon to jump in the pond with my two best friends, Gail and Pt.  It's so relaxing to get to just float and visit.  No phone calls, no work to have to hurry and get finished, just a couple of hours to enjoy each other and the wonderful smells, and sights as we swim.

Now this would be enough to make my life the best it could ever be without even one more thing, but the icing on the cake is that the leader of our band Gravel Road lives right next door to us and I get to play bluegrass and practice with the band right here at my home area. Will Williams, my best friends husband is the leader of that band and he's the best banjo player I've ever had the privilege to play with hands down.  Then not only that but I get to play bluegrass and sing with these same two best friends, my neighbors Gail and Pt, who I go swimming with each day, and that is right here at our home area too.  Our girls band The Foggy Mtn Girls is getting to play a few festivals now so we practice and laugh and have so much fun and we all live right here in our same neighborhood.  Wow, wow, wow!  Even Mondays are just like my Saturday's used to be.  Every single day is a weekend and every day is the best vacation of my life living right here up Skookumchuck. No more alarms ever!  I love this life!  Thank you, thank you, thank you........