My parents are pretty much the best in the world. Of course I would never tell them that, I wouldn’t want it to go to their heads. They have always done what parents should: protect, provide, prepare, and more than anything...pray! That’s really all parents can do. Oh, and cross their fingers for good luck. They were always there for me in any situation I got myself into...even as a child I would find myself in all kinds of mishaps!
One time I remember my parents took my sister and I to our favorite amusement park (Whalom Park). My father loved to video tape us going around the carousel and narrate on the video like we were at the race track and you just never knew which horse was going to win. But my all time favorite attraction was the super slides...you know the ones! You climb stairs for what seems like miles and then you get to go down a wavy slope on sack, screaming with your hands in the air. One day I was standing at the rail towards the bottom of the slides watching my sister come down. When she was finished my parents called me to leave so I turned to go but realized I couldn’t move. One of my knobby little knees had gotten stuck in the wooden rail I had poked it through while I was waiting. My parents tried to pry it loose but that thing wasn’t budging. They tried to slide it up....slide it down....slide it back and forth. After what seemed like an eternity they got someone from the park who tried to grease it out [to no avail]. I thought I was going to be stuck there for life...I started to cry so they brought a clown over and a man with a saw. As they were trying to saw me out the clown dropped his big colored pants to make me laugh. I remember my mom commenting to dad, “Well, now... I don’t think that’s very appropriate!” Eventually they did get me out; otherwise I would probably still be there to this day...they would have had to build me a little shelter and bring me meals. People would pay money to come see me and parents would use me as an example to their children of what not to do with their knees.
All that to say, my parents didn't always have it easy...as a two year old I ran off and got lost at the Boston aquarium. A few years later I got lost at Plymouth Plantation. When I went shopping with my mom I loved to hide inside the clothing racks and playing hide and seek (even though she never knew we were playing). Pretty much the only way they knew I wouldn't run off is if I was on my dad's shoulders. My favorite phrase as a little girl was 'Carry me, daddy!' I remember when we went to Disney World he told me that after that trip he would carry me no more...I was getting too big. (Which was true, I was almost six years old :)
I guess no matter how old I get, I will always be their little girl. Love you mom & dad!