I love taking little trips down memory lane and thinking of random things that I’ve kind of let slip from my mind. I had such a fun time growing up, best days of my life. I wish I had more photos from that time, but they’re all deadlocked on my parents old computer hard drive and I’m not sure how to get them off! Such a bummer. Maybe someday I’ll figure it out! But for now, at least I do have the images in my head. So here we go, in no particular order, just as they come to mind!

1. Summers at the cabin. Every. Single. Summer.

2. Graduating high school. And after the graduation party, I flew out of there back to cokato and we used some of my graduation money to go to Annandale to holiday gas station for drinks and snacks. And that’s how I spent graduation evening! It was the best.

3. Moving to a little apartment in Cokato with a friend.

4. Hanging out on the front steps of said apartment smoking clove cigarettes with the best people. So many evenings spent laughing and loving life.

5. Once I drove my brothers truck to Plymouth to get gas at Holiday where I currently worked, and as I was pumping gas, noticed a dead raccoon sprawled across the truck bed. I’ll never forget that.

6. Once upon a time at midnight, my bestie and I took huge kitchen knives for protection, and crept down a dark road in the country, from her house to sneak to visit at a friends house. Over a mile. Everytime a car came we’d dive down in the ditch to hide. We must have been about 15 then.

7. Biking to the gas station with siblings and neighbor kids from my childhood home during the summer. Was so fun to go get a cold drink and a treat.

8. One time my dad had taken the boys on a weekend hunting trip and brought me back candy and a set of plastic pink Princess jewelry and it was amazing.

9. Once in high school, one of my friends and I went to the office and said we needed to get our chemistry books from her car. We climbed in the back, smoked a cigarette, and opened the door to get out and a giant plume of smoke came out with us. They had parking lot cameras and we were a bit nervous for a bit!

10. Working at gas stations as a teen. I loved it so much. I met and worked with some of the most amazing people. It really brought me out of my shell!

11. My brother and a few of his friends and I were going to go in his truck just 5 miles to a gas station. There wasn’t room in the truck for a couple of them and I, so we were riding in the truck bed and I was nervous maybe it wasn’t legal. So as we were cruising down the county road, I called the sheriffs department and asked if it’s okay for us to ride in the truck bed. He laughed and said “it sounds like you already are!” But it was legal anyway.

12. Sauna evenings at my grandparents before we became too cool for that. Always the best cozy feelings. A cup of pop, eating cookies, reading comics. And sliding on our stomachs down their carpeted stairs to the basement.

13. Storm watching with my dad. Miss that so much.

14. Going to florida my senior year with my bestie. Lol, we didn’t want our lips to get sun burnt, so we loaded on some chapstick only to find out later it contained a sun attractor. Our lips were so swollen! And then she decided we should steal the mustang rental car and take a spin. Her dad was calling her within minutes saying we needed to get back to our moms immediately.

15. My dad was a finishing carpenter for years before he started his own business. He worked on some ritzy houses in Medina, including the former Timberwolves coaches house! Sometimes with nothing else to do, my other bestie (my cousin) would come pick me up and we’d drive through that neighborhood in his jeep, ogling the houses and laying claim to them.

16. Taking piano lessons. I loved playing and even played in a recital once. I was so terrified but so happy. It’s still my dream to get a piano in my house to play and for my kids to play.

17. When I was 17, my little brother and I had been in cokato and were heading back home. It was late, maybe 1 am, when a cop pulled me over. I hadn’t been doing anything wrong. He said he pulled me over because my license plate light was out. He then proceeded to ask me my parents full names and birthdates including years, I have no idea why. But I replied with them, as I am quite good with my families birthdays, and he was shocked and said he doesn’t even know his parents. So random.

18. When my dad fixed up a car for me. A black Nissan pathfinder. It was amazing. It had been my besties dads vehicle, it stopped working and he didn’t know how to fix it, so he gave it to my dad (they were besties too). My dad found it just needed a new computer. He got one for it, installed it, and gave the car to me!

I feel like there’s so many more amazing memories. It’s funny because nowadays everything has mention of childhood trauma and how as adults we are all trying to fix that and it’s affecting us badly, whatever. Mine seems to be the opposite. I had an amazing love filled childhood and adolescent years. It’s my adulthood that’s had more traumatic experiences and grief filled. I feel like it’s my childhood memories that are helping me get through life sometimes.

And I am off to Minnesota this week! Another mixed feelings trip. I’m really not the biggest fan of my mom having moved. It’s nice she’s in a location that’s easier to go visit my dads grave. But at the same time, it’s just different. Everything’s too different. So I’m off to make the best of it anyway! There is a Dunkin’ Donuts like a mile from her house and I saw they have their brownie batter donut. There are three caribou coffees within a mile as well, target a couple miles. It gets to be an expensive trip! 🙂

I hope you all had a good weekend and have a wonderful week!