What Would Zak Do

It’s amazing how sounds and smells can instantly take you back to a time and a place..

This fall we had the chance to live in an amazing house that backs up to a running trail and a creek area with tons of cottonwoods and aspens. Massive leaves fell with every color yellow, orange and red. Of course it all fell into our yard, on top of the trees we had, I’d never seen so many leaves. 

Everyday we had to rake and the pile was huge, big enough for our entire family to lay down and totally disappear. 

We brought the kids out to the yard, and they had a blast running, jumping and moving the slide into them, and then the cousins came over and we were playing “leaf monster” where the kids would bury the uncles until they couldn’t be seen and we’d jump out and the kids loved it. 

We took slow motion pictures and videos jumping in the leaves and I stopped and a moment came over me and the world just stopped. That moment brought me back to when I was only a few years old, a memory I didn’t even know I had stored. The smell of the dried, crunchy leaves, crisp air and a faint smell of soup coming out of the house. It took every thought and worry away for a few minutes, I smiled, and my eyes glazed over with tears of joy. 

If I had these feelings, I knew the kids would too, we created a core memory. These are the moments we live for.