If I Could Go Back

I've been feeling super nostalgic lately. I love memories. It's why I love to take so many pictures. I can capture those moments and freeze them in time. Maybe I'll do a blast from the past week...or month. We'll see.

Lately, it's the little things that are making me smile. Not vacations, birthdays or holidays. Just randoms days and moments. Sometimes I'd like to go back and relive those days that I took for granted, just like almost all of us do.

If I could go back I would:

*go on one of our family hikes at a state park.

Those were the days. Mom and Dad would pick a park in Iowa and off we'd go. Mom would carry a backpack with snacks, a jug of water and Dixie cups. It never failed. Within a mile of our hike we'd all be wining and begging for a snack and drink because we were obviously famished from all of that walking. Sure, we'd complain sometimes, but there was always something special about the hikes!

*spend a day at work with Mom when she cleaned the church.

Oh man...if those church walls could talk. Mom would always assign Erica and I some kind of task to help her with, which we would maybe follow through on, or do it as fast as we could. (Remember the Indy 500, Erica?)
Once Mom stopped caring about what we were doing, the fun would begin. You know...wheel chair races up and down the hallways, knocking a light cover down, spending time in our "S.H.S." aka Secret Hiding Spot...which happened to be in between some pews in the sanctuary. It's where we'd go to hide from Kendra because little sisters are SO annoying! Oh, and I'd like to say sorry if they were short some cookies one day for VBS, because Erica and I totally gorged ourselves on some Archway chocolate chips cookies one day. Clearly, we were well behaved little church children.

*go on a bike ride with Dad

We spent many hours going on bike rides together. There was always something special about getting to go somewhere alone with one of your parents. Bikes rides were what I loved best with Dad. We'd ride all over the Cedar Hills neighborhood. Take a ride through the "Monkey church" lot. Don't know why we called it that, but I'm fairly certain that we'd making monkey sounds and everything! Biking down the hill at E-Free was the best though...until they put up that stupid gate.

*lay in the dark with the whole family with just the radio on.

Yep. We totally did this. We'd just tell stories and laugh. It was even more fun when the Christmas tree was up and we would have the tree lights on. Dad has the best childhood stories...and of course he had his own tales that he made up. Electric Man, anyone?

*play all of our stupid made up games

The "buzz game", pretend radio shows..."Wake up Cedar Rapids!", "Avon calling!", keep away from the alligator (who was always Kendra because we wanted to get away from her. lol!) and then of course "Jack Ass" which came along many years later. That one had to do with a butt and a tennis ball. Hahaha!

As I'm typing I keep thinking for more and more things. So stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow!