At risk of sound sappy, yet again, so many of the best moments of this year have been the ones that are completely unplanned.

This week, that looked like getting caught in a rainstorm with my family at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We’d been at my brother’s cross country meet all morning before heading over. Evan and Kai had never been and I hadn’t been in years. The zoo puts attendees as close as safely possible to animals. I have pictures now of Kai petting a wallaby and Evan separated from two orangutans just by the enclosed glass. As we walked near the African exhibit, it started drizzling, then thunder started, and suddenly it was a downpour of sun and rain as we all laughed and speed walked past the elephants. While I’m grateful that this zoo is a great cause we got to give some money to, it’s the experiences of bonding and love that I’ll remember the most from our journey.

Another unplanned joy has been the intensity of my involvement with Rotary. As I write this, I just finished helping to look over Mountain View Rotary’s value proposition statement. I didn’t expect to join any committees or boards but here I am, suddenly, as one of the members focused on requirement and marketing. It’s been such a cool opportunity to delve more into Rotary and get more time talking about the organization I love but I didn’t know walking into this year that I’d land here.