Creating memories

Have you ever created a memory from an old childhood picture you were in? I think I have created memories from pretty much every picture I have in my childhood photo album. Or I've used the pictures to reconstruct a "semi-fictional" memory of times I don't actually remember (does it make any sense?).

Every fall since we moved to Colorado we've taken a little trip to a nearby farm called Cottonwood farm to enjoy the fun activities (hay maze, corn maze, pumpkin patch, animals etc...) and take pictures of the kids. Every year I come home from the farm with an overabundance of pictures, one in particular--the tradition shot is a picture of each child standing near the measuring scale on the Cottonwood farm sign. 

If I hadn't been there that day, I'd probably look at these pictures and think how great this tradition is... 

Look at them pretending to scare me in the corn maze : )

William has a serious obsession for dogs. That dog was really nice and leaked his face.

Farm animals...

Acrobaties around pumpkins

Big muscles...

But pictures don't tell the whole story. What you can't see from the pictures is how grumpy everybody was that day (or maybe you can). The end of pumpkin season was approaching and we hadn't had a chance to go to the farm  yet, but I didn't want to miss the chance to get my "tradition shot"(and I also genuinely love this tradition), so I dragged everyone there, notwithstanding I was the only one who wanted to go. 

I don't recall that morning being fun for anyone. I never managed to get the "tradition shot" from William and the only thought on my mind was let's get these pictures done and get out of here. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, I do believe somehow, at one point or another the boys did manage to have some fun, but it never lasted long enough to really transpire. All in all I came home thinking this outing was a complete failure, and I thought I'd never want to look at those pictures again.

And yet here I am, posting them, which takes me back to the beginning of this post (I have a point, I promise, not getting there quickly but it's coming): I realize this is my personal memory of the event, and it is subjective. I was looking at the pictures on my computer this afternoon and Joshua came looking at them. I asked him if he remembered going there? He said no. And then he said with excitement "I went there with my Daddy, and my little brother and you. I love this place!" And William repeated: "Mommy Le's go there now. I wanna bring tha' kumkin back at ma house, I bring all of the kumkins".

So I think I'm happy I dragged everyone there, I'm happy I took the pictures and I kept them, because we created a memory that day. Not an accurate memory because the boys have forgotten all about it, but a memory they can recreate everytime they look at the pictures. And I hope what I wrote about that particular day being a little crappy won't influence their opinion about it too much.