Friday, June 27, 2008

The Circle of Life

It happens to the best of us. We grow up saying there is no chance in a million we are ever going to be like our parents. We are going to do everything different and better. Of course, we all mean it.

Today I have made a discovery... I am just like my mom.

My mom was what one could call a "spit-fire" personality. She had big dreams, grand ideas and strong opinions. My mom would wear the family out by taking our pictures until we thought we were all going to die. She loved genealogy and would be working on it ALL the time. We would go on grand road trips as a family and she would talk about how someday she would like to have a motor home to make the trip even better. When my mom passed away just over two years ago, it was as if I forgot about all the things that annoyed me -- and embraced each one of those.

We began our 2008 road trip yesterday. Last year we hit several states while seeing Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. This year, we are driving up to the Northwest, through Utah, then back home by way of the Oregon Coast. Evidently I wanted my children to experience all the fun memories a family can create by locking themselves in a small space for 10 days.

We packed up my mom's family history files (about 35 - 40) boxes to take to my sister in Washington. I have recently become obsessed with genealogy myself and these volumes of history fascinate me.

So, as I sit here at our first vacation stop, taking an annoyingly large amount of pictures of my family, I think about the family history boxes piled up in our rented RV and think... I am just like my mom.

1 comment:

Laurie said...

I love it!!!! It's so true!!! Mom is probably laughing smugly to herself.
It's interesting how the things that we thought were so annoying at the time are sooo endearing to us now and what great memories were created because of all of that.