What is your Favourite Childhood Memory?

Excellent question.

I think my favorite childhood memory is riding in the passenger seat of my aunt's Jeep with the top down and her grinding through her gears, taking us up a rugged mountain pass in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. We bounced, banged, and bruised our way up that mountain but I was so thrilled to be out there in the outdoors and with another female who enjoyed the same things as I did (and do.) I was also touched that my parents let me go, without them, since I was only 11 or 12 years old at the time, and they are really not into that sort of thing.

In fact, they went along up a much less rugged pass the next day, and my aunt's friend tipped the Jeep they were riding in! No one was the worse for the wear, and a tour group coming up the single-lane mountain pass parked, hopped out (bunch of high school students, football team even) and helped right their Jeep again.

I always envied my aunt for her spirit, compassion and sense of adventure and I miss her greatly. I wish she was still alive, so she could meet my 3-year-old daughter, whom I hope I can instill some of the same indelible memories in through our own shared adventures.