A Ride Down Memory Lane

You know that feeling you get when you smell something that brings up memories or emotions?  It happens with me sometimes - I have this spray for my hair that's a heat-protection spray, and whenever I use it, I get this deep, ripping sadness running through me.  So far I have been unable to connect a specific memory to the scent.  All I know is that every time I use the stuff I want to sit down and hug myself and cry.   Another scent that affects me deeply is the smell of a campfire.  Countless hours have been spent sitting around campfires, especially with my maternal grandparents, all over the Western United States including Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. I have such fond, wonderful memories of most of the camping trips throughout the years, and nothing made Grandpa Nick prouder than a big, roaring campfire to end the day.


Last week I had a slightly different experience:  Matt and I decided to head up to the family cabin for a little R&R during his Spring Break.  We decided to take  route to the cabin which I had never been before, mostly so that we could stop at this restaurant in Boise for dinner and then head out.  After a scrumptious Tucano's dinner, we set out cabin-bound the "back" way through Boise.  About an 45 minutes into the drive I started feeling like I had been on that road before.  I looked all around for something to connect my feelings to, and while it seemed a little familiar, I just couldn't put my finger on it.  The more we got into the mountains, I started to really feel a connection to that area, an area I felt like I knew really, really well.  I asked Matt, "Is is possible to get to Stanley on this road?" Stanley was an area I spent countless days and nights with my grandparents in their big trailer at our favorite campground we called "Elk Camp".  We would stay there for days and days on end - we even stayed so long that Fish and Game came by once and told us that we had to pack up and move because we had been there too long (to which we simply moved to a different spot in the same camp ground.  We had a couple of favorites).

Anyway, as we journeyed on, all these emotions and memories started bubbling up from out of nowhere and I was recalling road trips is Grandpa's old trucks with the trailer dragging along behind.  Happy memories and memories that made me laugh and memories that made me feel sad - it really caught me off guard.  I just KNEW that we had to be on the road we often took to Stanley, though it has been so long since my last trip there that I couldn't recall the route.  I made a mental note to be sure to ask my Mom that night if that was a route we generally took to get to Stanley.  It just had to be.

Later that evening after we were settled in at the cabinhouse, mom called like she always does to make sure we arrived safely and I asked her about the road.  Sure enough, it was a route we had taken often to get to our favorite stomping grounds - it was the long way, but we often took it when pulling the trailer to avoid the super winding mountain roads that made up the other route to the campground.   

What an amazing thing our mind is, to be able to conjure up such strong feelings and emotions by simply driving along and WHAM, having the wind knocked out of you unexpectedly by your surroundings.   There are a lot of things like this that I experience:  the smell and taste of iced tea always takes me back to Texas to my paternal grandparents and my Dad - there was always a fresh cup of iced tea ready when I would visit.  The smell and taste of coffee takes me back to being a little kid and watching my maternal grandparents drink coffee in the mornings. I even had my own little tiny cup that Grandma would put a little bit of coffee into with plenty of milk and sugar.  To this day I LOVE the taste of coffee.  Calvin Klein cologne always makes me think of my brother Karlin, as do Depeche Mode songs and those scented stick things you burn - what are they called?  I can't recall, but I'd know the smell anywhere. 

A combined scent of iced tea and that yummy smell of a cigarette that's just been lit, just when the paper is burning before the flame reaches the tobacco, always takes me back to riding around in the car with my Dad on my visits to Texas.  I remember sitting in the backseat in my car seat and watching Dad drink his giant mug of Iced Tea and enjoying a cigarette.  We used to ride around in a bit truck that had an open top.  Seeing an Indian artifacts and decorations always makes me think of Grandma Betty - her house always had Indian decorations, and to this day I still have some of those decorations I inherited from her. 

Okay, enough of the sentimental.  I just took a funky trip down memory lane and wanted to share it with you all.  That was fun.

I'll give you a short update on what's been going on in my family, then I'll post some pictures from the last couple of weeks.  Easter was a few weeks ago.  The Friday night before Easter we went to an Easter dinner at our Church, enjoyed some good company, and there was an Easter Egg hunt for the kids that lasted all of about 30 seconds (35 kids devoured about 450 eggs in that amount of time...devoured in the run-like-crazy-cram-them-into-your-easter-basket type of devour and not the cram-as-many-eggs-as-you-can-into-your-mouth kind of devour).  The next day we went with Matt's family to Bruneau Sand Dunes.  I had been there a couple of times as a kid, and I remember racing my step-dad down the side of the dunes.  Running down a giant sandy mountain is actually quite fun, until you're nearly 30 and tweak your knee slightly in the process.  Anyway, we took a picnic lunch and let the kids play around (read roll-around) in the sand for a while, then it was off to conquer a giant sand dune (well, it was one of the smallest, but hey! it was work to climb!)  The kids lugged a couple of winter sleds to the top of the dune, but quickly found that sledding on sand is not quite the same as sledding on snow.  They got a couple of slow runs out of and had fun.  By this time everyone was barefoot since our shoes were filled up with sand.  At one point all the kids ran down the face of the dune to the bottom, but on the trek back up something strange happened: a couple of them started screaming and crying.  As I journeyed down to see what was going on I quite quickly found out what the problem was: that was the side of the dune facing the sun.  The sand was hot.  QUITE hot. My bare feet felt like they were on fire.  I grabbed up my kiddos and hauled them up to the top of the dune while my feet continued to burn, and we all quickly put on our shoes and socks and decided to wrap the day up.  We did a little Easter Egg hunt by the lake for the kids, and then packed up and headed home. 

On actual Easter we had a pretty typical Easter Sunday:  go to church (except in our case we are regular church attendees, rather than the twice-a-year-Easter-and-Christmas type), come home, take a nap, then we headed off to my Mom's for a ham dinner and another little Easter Egg hunt for the kids.  Oh, I forgot to mention that the Easter bunny stopped by at some point the night before and left wonderful Easter Baskets full of jelly beans and chocolate for the kids. 

Matt has been on Spring Break the last couple of weeks.  While I was really wanting to take a little trip somewhere for a few days, we didn't make it far (except the cabin for a few days).  Now it is the Friday before the Monday when Matt has to go back, and we're out of traveling time.  But, what I really love about this time of year is that Summer is just around the corner, school will be out, and it's starting to warm up.  The winter was long and cold, and I am looking forward to warm days, shorts, and swimming pools.  Also we are planning a big trip to lay Grandpa to rest in the mountains of Utah where he's always wanted to be (his ashes, of course), and then head down to Texas to visit family and friends.  So far this summer is shaping up to be a great one!

Playing at Bruneau Sand Dunes

Picnic Lunch!

Matt and his Dad hanging out at Bruneau

Sand Dune in the distance.  Ignore the giant bathroom..

IT'S A GIANT SAND BOX!!!

My little munchkins playing in the sand.

Kellen, Keegan, David

Easter Egg hunt!

Keegan after an egg in the tree.

At a park in New Meadows near the cabin.

Happiness is...

I can't figure out how to turn this picture right-side up for the blog.  It's a cool picture of the park!

Who says grown-ups can't play??

Audrey playing in what's left the snow.

The beautiful cabin in the woods.

Look close - there's a face on the tree.

Mountain sky.

Kellen lookin for trouble.

Getting loaded up to go home.

Kellen found his trouble...

We went for a short four-wheeler ride before we left.

Another cool picture I can't get turned!