Momentary Memory Remembrance

It's funny how memories can strike at the oddest times.

I often wonder if when a memory is created, if there are key trigger points attached to it as it gets filed away in the that monstrous filing cabinet we call a brain. Because sometimes I remember the oddest things at the oddest times!

For instance, this picture is hilarious to me, mostly because of the memory it triggers.
First of all, Mr. Man and I look ridiculous in our matchy matchy blue polo shirts and what is up with that pose that we are obviously oblivious to the fact that we are identically positioned in?!

And the whole scene just reminds me of an English class we took together at BYUH years ago when we were both young undergrads (for the first time)! With polar opposite majors, we took advantage of any core classes we could take together, and this was one of them. We were taking it in the summer and between working and watching our baby, often we didn't see each other until our evening class... and almost always showed up dressed identically! It became a class joke. And typically we were both wearing light blue shirts and khaki shorts (we were poor students and only had a limited wardrobe to begin with!) So this picture brings back a flood of memories of that class and time period.

And then there are these two pictures which already bring up random memories:
One thing a trampoline is good for is when you are trying to make ice cream by hand. I thought, with 21 family members, we would have a blast making ice cream - tossing it back and forth and then enjoying the sweet reward. And yet, I am sure this will get filed in the "flop" memory file for everyone involved because it was a royal flop. First of all, it was a giant mess, everyone got worn out, the ice cream never completely solidified (more like milk shakes) and it just wasn't the "fun" family activity I had imagined! Oh well. Nothing like spending $30 on supplies for a floppy ice cream memory!

It's kind of like today. I'm watching a couple of extra kids, and for some "fun" we went on a penny hike this afternoon. We rode our bikes and at every corner, a different child would toss a penny: heads we turn right, tails (or building in our case) and we turn left. We wandered, what felt like aimlessly and repetitively, around the neighborhood. The kids really hated it. They voted it the worst hike we'd ever been on. So we celebrated afterwards, because how many times do you go on the "worst hike ever?" Hopefully they'll remember the horrible part and that we celebrated it. But who knows. I have lots of memories of horrible hikes myself. The worst one being the Thanksgiving hike where I was so lost that the remaining family members sent the police to search for me. When I was finally found, I got to ride in the back seat of the police car (since Mom had invited the police who helped look for me over for pie). The officer looked at me, in the back seat crying, through his rear view mirror and said, "That's funny, they told me you had green eyes, but they look red to me!" Not funny then. Pretty funny now.