Water

We took a ride to Keene the other day. My daughter had a meeting with the GM of the 99Restaraunt where she hopes to work when she returns to college in the fall. She is a very good planner and figured this would be a good opportunity to drop some stuff at her apartment. She also needed to shop for a new mattress. So hubby and I took advantage of this precious daughter/parent time and went along. Fortunately it was a relatively cool summer day. I was glad to be able to see where my baby would be living. I was so pleased at her show of maturity and independence. She found this apartment along with 2 other girls. The 3 of them are doing a fantastic job of taking care of business to get everything all set up. It freaks me out to see my children as young adults. Hubby and I are constantly asking how we got so lucky.  We realize all to well that things don't always turn out the way you hope.

As we traveled across rt 101, I enjoyed the beautiful New Hampshire scenery. I was especially noticing all the lakes and waterholes. I was remembering that cool wet feeling of swimming in a lake on a hot summer day. I have such nice summer memories of when my children were young. We were so busy! We loved to go to Water Country! We had quite a routine. I would pack lunches and snacks. We would leave early so we could get a picnic table in the shade. We would spend the whole day there. It was so much fun. We actually went enough times to form a strategy to avoid crowds. If we got there early enough we could rent our rafts, and we could do all the slides without having to wait in line.  After lunch we could spend our time in the wave pool and on the lazy river ride. An even better strategy was to go on an overcast day! While the clouds and threats of rain kep the faint of heart away, we would shiver our way up and down the watersides more times than we could count!
Another favorite water spot was Greenfield State Park. I was in charge of packing lunch and hubby was in charge of packing the beach toys. We would fill up the back of the station wagon with every possibility. My motto "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it” did not test the patience of hubby. He dutifully fit everything in. Cooler, blankets, sun block, net for frog catching, camera, pails, shovels, rafts,change of clothes for the ride home. We took our ritual walk to the ice-cream store and the frog pond. On the ride home, we would stop at one of the farm stands on the way and get some corn on the cob. The perfect ending to the day would be hubby cooking on the grill and the fresh corn. 
Other water spots: Humarock beach, Hampton beach,Old Orchard Beach,  Del Ray beach,  Silver lake, Baboosic lake, kiddie pools, our backyard pool, my sister-in-laws pool, the pool at my parents Florida condo,
My babies have transformed into 20somethings as time has ebbed and flowed through our lives, but the memories can never be washed away.

Letting the memories flow through  me as I sit here  in my comfy chair in my Shalom Babayit.