Last night John took turns dancing with the girls in the living room while we watched Dancing with the Stars. I danced with Sam too, which at this point is mostly jumping up and down in place. Watching John pick Caroline up and twirl her around and then let Loretta dance on his feet brought back some very fond memories of me dancing with my dad.
There was a restaurant we would go to when staying at our cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks. It wasn’t fancy, not much is in that area, but it did have a REAL dance floor. I use to feel pretty special dancing with my dad out there in front of everyone. Usually, no one else bothered to dance, it was just me and my dad in front of all the other guests and I was still young enough that it didn’t embarrass me at all. I loved the attention. I thought about it today during my run and realized, that memory is clearer to me than so many other wonderful things I experienced growing up. Fishing with May flies, skiing with my feet in front of my dads, eating a bowl of Fruit Loops the size of my head while my mom made a huge French toast, eggs and bacon breakfast for the rest of the family, laying in the hammock, singing at the top of our lungs in the back of the Suburban and jumping off the jumping rocks…those memories are considerably more vivid than the ones associated with really big events like Worlds of Fun and our cross country trip to California. Here I am, almost 37 and I can see that coffee mug tree in my mind so perfectly I could be standing right in front of it.
Loretta and Caroline have been begging to go to Disney World and I’ve been stressing. When can we fit that in, they should go but, if we wait another couple years than Sam might actually remember it too, but will Loretta be too old??? But the more I think about it, I’ve decided I’m not going to stress anymore. We’ll get them there, eventually, and it will be great. But most likely it will be the little things like dancing with their dad and playing at the beach with their cousins and going for ice cream when they visit grandma and grandpa that stick with them for the long run.
1 comment:
My friend Jen and I were just having this conversation, about the great memories that we have from our childhood and the ones that we want out kids to have. For her it was at the family beach house, for me it was the camping trips and the hiking. We came to the conclusion that as long as you make the time for some good family fun, your kids will have great memories. If and when you do decide to go to Disney, I know a great stop over on the way down... Love you!
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