June 28: Hikes, Bikes, and Swims, too

My memory was that my own children spent a good chunk of their free time care-giving for grandparents and helping with chores around the house in the days before they explored working on their own. As I have been going through the photo memories that I have, I have decided they really had pretty good, if not wild and crazy or extravagant childhoods!  

Evidence to support my claim begins with planned or even unplanned hikes often spurred by Uncle Vince with cousins where paths were explored and laughter filled the woods. More than once, to be honest, we were unsure of our way out of the maze of black diamond and triangle labeled trails, if not totally lost! This image (Uncle Vince, Tony, me, Aunt Barbara, Della) was likely taken from a person who was far ahead of the rest on the hike with a camera! 

Sometimes, we hiked on magical trails where the wonders of nature were abundant and the majesty of the earth was everywhere. More than once we swam in Bash Bish Falls even if you were not supposed to do so!  More than once, I held my breath as we hiked or even mountain biked on steep and windy trails where the views were almost worth the work and worry.

My photos would suggest there were lots more afternoons spent with nature than at amusement parks and in restaurants!  I wish we had taken you on trips to explore at bit of the world while we could have done so. I also wish I had known then, how fleeting and wonderful those days would be in the chapters of our story. Yet, there was more time spent together doing-outdoors-activities than my now fleeting and tear-stained memories might suggest. There were smiles and there was laughter in our family as well as love. 

If I am honest, it may have been those early hikes and camping trips with Vince, Barbara and their growing family, even before we had children, which may have shaped our own parenting in a quiet manner. In those days, before I my job was Mom, I might even have one time had a trunk full of Twinkies and been remembered, forever, as The Goody Queen.  (Sometimes, the memories are so powerful you really do not need pictures to remember)

Keep them busy and outdoors may have been the plan, even if we never articulated it! Perhaps, I may even be remembered as an OK parent! 

Hikes, bikes, swims, laughs, smiles,

There really were more than I remembered!

Seeds planted at Cranberry Lake