In 1996, I was privileged to go on road trip with two VIP’s. At least they definitely were to me. Weeks away from starting my first “grown-up” job teaching fifth graders, I went up and stayed with my grandparents for several days late that summer.
They were the ones who initiated the outing. At age 84 and 88, they still got around quite well. Although they did have me drive, they picked the destination. Ashfall.
I loved the time we spent there! The above picture of a picture almost captures the fun adventures that await for anyone that chooses to visit.
In fact, I captured the experience in one of my very first scrapbook layouts. Documenting the landscape and the fossils complete with stickers of the animals that once were found here in Nebraska in ages long ago (probably right before Noah’s great flood), I still enjoy remembering that trip. I would have enjoyed seeing all of those animals. Hopefully sometime we will get to take our kids there!
My biggest regret: while I managed to document the place, for whatever reason I did not document the people. No pictures exist of the couple that day that wanted to make a memory with their oldest granddaughter. I can still picture them then – Grandma guiding Grandpa along as he was no longer quite as steady. Arm-in-arm, they walked the paths, just as they traveled through life.
They are both gone now – on to meet their Savior. I still miss them. In fact, tears are streaming down my face as I type this. I am hopeful that maybe a picture of them together that day still exists in one of my many boxes of snapshots waiting to be documented. But I am afraid that I will just be forever relying on the pictures in my head, rather than on the page, for the memories that day.
I still take many, many pictures of places. But today, as we were on yet another adventure, I was intentional about capturing my kids in the moment. For that is what will really matter someday.
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