the view from the top

"Let's do it!" My Extravaganza yelled, and began running with her crazily lopsided gait towards the start of the steeply inclining emergency access road up Wild Horse Mountain. She'd already had a fair walk through a rainforest with her kindy, but she wasn't about to let a little thing like a badly fractured leg stop her.
This week has been hectic and stressful, with four doctor visits and much juggling and worrying. After school, and after Beloved finished his shift, he gathered us all into the car and stole us away, heading up the highway into the distance.
The sun slanted gold light across us, and to one side we had the beautiful silhouettes of the Glasshouse Mountains and to the other we snatched small glimpses of the beginning of the Sunshine Coast.
Reaching the top, there was a small gazebo, and the children climbed the silvered wood stairs eagerly to take possession of the kingdom, small royalty who did their wild dance of ownership on top of a table with a map of the area.
They were stained and rumpled and mismatched, but their joy was infectious. We surveyed distant dormant volcanoes and slivers of ocean, miles of forest and plantation, and it felt like we were on top of the world.
Outside.
It's always so much better.