airport, sunny beach, and memory lane

I began the day yesterday with a tremendous amount of aspirations. Truly I set myself up for failure. BUT the WIN for the day was that I accomplished just about everything I'd planned to do. Now that's rare. The littles and I started out the day by running to the store for some yard supplies. That was followed by a decent amount of yard work at my own house. After a quick shower we headed out for a field trip to a small local-ish airport. The field trip was followed by an outing to the beach. The kids and I were out for about five hours. Pretty much right when we arrived home I made a rather elaborate dinner. Then we ate. Bedtime was right around the corner and that is what I call an oddly successful day.

We didn't fly in the jet but Abe loved going inside it and exploring.

In the FAIL category I really have to rack my brain. I guess it would have to be that we didn't get as much school done as I'd have liked (as far as book reading and work pages go) but we went on a cool field trip so really I don't consider that much of a fail.

You know what? Yesterday was really SPICY. I love that we spent a lot of time outside. It was a beautiful day. I met new people at the field trip and enjoyed hanging out with them at the beach. My baby Wren went in a swing for the first time and she loved it. There were numerous gems throughout the day.

One aspect of the day that really stood out to me was pretty bittersweet. In order to get to the airport and then to the beach I had to take routes I haven't driven in years. Driving old familiar paths brought a tidal wave of memories. It was fun literally driving down memory lane. "oh, there's the gas station that Kristin and I paid for a few gallons of gas all in pennies." "wow, there's the drug store where I bought nickel candy every morning of fifth grade on my bike ride to school." "Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that one friend I hung out with a few times in... hmm, was it ninth grade? What was her name? I'm pretty sure that was her house." I drove miles and miles and miles of routes that used to be regular parts of my life but that I haven't much visited in over a decade.

The really bitter part of the adventure was that SOOOOOOO many places from my youth are gone. There are condominiums built where none had been, new stores and restaurants, roads have been rerouted. It's truly crazy how much is different and gone. I suppose it really is a fact of life but tons and tons of places from my childhood and adolescence are no longer in existence. Yesterday was a great day but this one particular fact did make my heart sad.