Walk Down Memory Lane...

'No one ever injured their eyesight by looking on the bright side of things'

(I originally found the picture on http://piccsy.com/2012/05/picc-snv3zvbm/)

This is so me right now. Despite things not being ideal currently I feel like this says it all!

I am a realist, it has its ups and downs. I think the best part of being a realist is that I see things in two different lights, I'm not a pessimist so I don't always think the worst and I'm not an optimist, I don't always think the best. So I guess if you really think about it being a realist is pretty damn good. Ha. Amazing what writing a thought down does!

So tomorrow starts my trek of biking, that is how I came about this image I was Googling biking stuff.

I am challenging myself to ride close to 10 miles a day and I haven't sat on a bike and rode more than 10 minuets since before I was 16. See back in the day the "Shady Crew" (we weren't shady we actually lived in a development called Shady Cabins, we're original.) and myself would ride our bikes from my grandmothers in 'Shady' to my new place of residence in a town 3.5 miles away! We would do that multiple times a day if I do recall correctly!

Biking map

That is the route we'd take, keep in mind that was the easy way if you wanted to ride up the huge ass hill! We'd typically take the long way around which was an extra 10 minuets so we wouldn't have to work to hard! 

Oh the days when we were young! Riding our Haro's and Mongoose's, chasing boys around, walking down "the road" at 11 p.m. because we could and it was safe where we lived. The most danger we faced was going in the cow fields with the bulls, climbing trees that were rotten, starting fires in the dead of summer and almost burning down an entire circle of trees (a.k.a. The Tree), falling on ice I can only think of one person that fell on ice every single year! Haha Oh my gosh. 

We used to make towns out of leaves, there was never a shortage.

Every summer we'd have sleep overs anywhere and everywhere but mostly end up on my grandmothers porch or at one persons house in particular, she had a pool. I always ended up being the one going in the water at 1 a.m. wearing my ducky pajamas! Along with being thrown in the pool I think we watched Bring It On, Coyote Ugly and Fast and Furious oh I don't know... 1,000 times? Just the summer they came out?!

Oh and who could forget tubing down the crick?! Ugh, every day we'd be out by like 10 a.m. blowing up the tubes and walking down the road to get to a good spot, float down to the swimming hole and either get out and do it all again or start looking for sea shells! One year I ended up with my back so sun burnt from probably 2 hours of sea shell hunting. 

This is how we roll.

Oh I miss those days. <3

I know to most people who read this they won't get it but I know a few that will and it was such good times at Shady, I loved my childhood, 

I... have a stick.

One thing that makes me sad is that we've all grown up and grown apart, not far apart but still apart. Also the state in which our beloved Shady now resides, fields are over grown, the crick has become more of a stream, and most of all I no longer have any ties to the place. My grandmothers place is for sale and the twenty-four years of memories I have are now just that, memories. 

I can only hope that my kids get to know and love a place like Shady.

(If anyone has any pictures from our days in Shady could you please let me know? I'd like some.)

Thanks for reading!

Comment with your favorite childhood memory or a place that you thought was just as amazing as I always thought Shady was!

<3 Brittni