Thank You Card and Creating Memories

Yesterday I received a red card that reads “Thank u For Lode Yo Kooh Fro Jonathan” Jonathan insisted that his mother deliver his expression of thankfulness and kept hounding his mother until she delivered it to me at the office.

For those readers who cannot read youthful Kiddees I let me translate, “Thank you for letting us look at the camper.” (Thanks Erika for your translation assistance).

Jonathan, your note of thankfulness is received and is warmly cherished.

For other readers, Jonathan along with his brother Joshua, mother and father will be using our RV this August to travel to Disney. Jonathan and his brother have asked their parents if they could go camping in a vehicle like ours. Now they are not only excited about visiting Disney but they are also excited about traveling down the highway and camping in our toy.

Evie and I pleased to allow these officer friends of ours borrow our vehicle to create a lasting and memorable vacation for their sons. As the years pass we look back with fondness upon those special vacation trips that departed from the ordinary. I remember three such family trips from my youth, the trip to Expo 67 and Ottawa, the vacation spent at Bon Echo, and the trip when we circled Lake Superior.

I also remember as young married couple the week Evie and I spent camping at Arrowhead with my parents and siblings. Day after day it rained, sometimes heavy and other times not much more than a mist. We found ways to entertain ourselves between the pop-up and the tents. When we could we fought to various degrees of success to light a campfire. One of my more cherished pictures is from that week, it is a picture of myself and a youthful Jenn doing our rendition of Fred Aster and Ginger Rogers by dancing in the rain around an black umbrella.

As a parent three vacations Evie and I took with our boys continue to warm my heart. There is the vacation we took to Disney in 1997, the trip to Wyoming and Colorado, and the vacation trip the saw us camping near Washington DC before we meet up with their uncles and aunts at a campground on the shores of Lake Erie. Each is cherished for different reasons. One journey for the excitement and joy of fulfilling the youthful dreams of our sons. One for the grand scenery of the mountains, and for the 3 hour trail ride through box canyons and up and down grand hills with a wrangler (and eating at the modern chuck wagon, the Ford F150). One for the opportunity for our boys to bond with their cousins in the Sears tradition of camping as well as the opportunity to again enjoy canvas and a campfire with my siblings.

Rob and Carolynn are in the process of giving a precious gift to their sons that we are confident that Jonathan along with his elder brothers Joseph and Joshua in their adult years will look upon the trip with warm fondness. Evie and I are honored to be just a small part of helping further that memory along. Thank you Jonathan for the card, it has been received and it beautifully expresses your thankfulness.