Memories In the Making.........

I recently returned from a weeks vacation in beautiful Cancun, Mexico. As anyone with children knows vacations away from home can be exciting, amazing, stressful and exhausting! Our first five days were spent with major rain storms off and on throughout the day and night.

Family vacations were always the most vivid memories of my childhood. As a young child I can recall my parents dragging my brother and I across the country to visit relatives that lived on the east coast (Maryland, West Virginia). Every trip was packed with sites along the way. Educational trips to Washington DC seeing monuments and being taught History 101, watching American Civil War enactments in Gettysburg, PA, seeing the Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania, and standing in front of the eternal flame in the middle of July in 100 + temperatures. Despite what memories we took away with us they were in fact memories.

My children are 5 & 6. They have been to South Carolina. Utah, California, Oregon, Hawaii and now Mexico. I'm quite sure there are many things they may never remember but I also know there are things that they will, things I never imagined they would. Watching Captain Cook's Pirate ships sail by in the darkness of the night, with their sails strung with lights and the roar of their cannon's as they battled each other (tourist dinner cruise) amazed my two boys five of the seven nights we were there. But sitting with them on the beach and watching the sunset and the sky turn a dozen shades of crimson and trying to explain that the sky was in fact not really on fire it just looked that way, will always be one of my favorite memories. Walking barefoot on the beach after five days of solid rain and looking up to see the beauty of a rainbow.

As I look at these pictures I will forever recall the squeal of delight as they experienced these sights for the very first time. Perhaps the memories I try to create for my children aren't just for them, maybe as I age and my memory begins to fade they will be my stepping stones to reality. A reality I could never imagine living without, even with a little rain..........