Childhood Memories

I've been thinking a lot lately about my childhood memories. I heard someone smart once say that "you need to build memories for your children." I think back to my childhood and many of my happy memories are of camping and fishing trips with my parents. My parents helped to give me happy memories by spending time with us kids. Both quality and quantity of time.

We tried to do the same with our kids. We did overnight hiking trips, fishing, clam digging, 4-wheeling, snowmachining, camping, and lots of other outdoor activities. Katie was just telling me the last time she was here how much she enjoyed the hiking trips we did together as a family. Now my memories are of Katie whining about how far it was, how her legs were tired, how she wished she could be at home, how bad the mosquitos were, how cold, wet, rainy, and miserable it was. Now she doesn't remember all that, she remembers the fun. I'm glad, because I thought those times were fun too. I think spending so much time together as a family helped us all enjoy each other throughout the teen years.

I miss my babies! They are both all grown up and starting families of their own. My advice to them would be to make happy memories for their kids.

Here's one of my favorite memories as a child while out camping. It started with my Dad telling a story around the campfire:

It was a dark and stormy night. A band of outlaws was seated around the campfire, when the leader said, "Jack! Tell us a story!" So Jack began.....

It was a dark and stormy night. A band of outlaws was seated around the campfire, when the leader said, "Jack! Tell us a story!" So Jack began....

Dad could go on forever it seemed, but each time he would change it up a bit. If it was raining, pretty soon they'd all be seated around a soggy campfire. Sometimes Jack would start out in a different voice. Sometimes it was a dark, stormy, raining, wet night.