the most rebellious thing I’ve ever done

We always swore we wouldn’t speak of this to anyone… and maybe I really shouldn’t, but every time I see this picture I just burst out laughing.  I showed it to Dallin and asked him, “did I ever tell you this story?”  He shook his head and said, “No, but it looks like a really creepy picture of you getting kidnapped in the 80s or something…”

…that would have been better.

Sarah and I were always partners in crime. We were visiting Oregon during that summer with the whole family. It was the 4th of July and we found this lake to sit by to watch the fireworks.  The lake was pretty much in the middle of nowhere (at least my 10 year old self thought so) as we sat by a fire, watched the fireworks, and let the mosquitos eat us alive.

Well, about 5 minutes in Sarah and I realized we both really need to go to the bathroom. (Do you see where this story is going?)

We walked for miles (in our young 10 and 8 year old brains) and darn it, after probably 10 minutes, we just couldn’t take it anymore.  We swore each other to secrecy and ran off into the forest to do our business.  It was dark, we couldn’t see anything, and we figured we’d just find some leaves to wipe with.

Let’s just say it wasn’t as clean of a process as we had imagined.  After we had finished, we somehow weren’t able to see where we were stepping, and we took some serious missteps without knowing…see where we’re going with this? Satisfied and blissfully ignorant, we returned back to our spot where the fam was watching fireworks.

As we all know, moms have this weird sixth sense where they know when their children have stepped in excrement from a mile away. There was an awful smell and it was pretty apparent what had happened.  She was probably pretty angry and horrified, but all I can remember is stripping down and going back into the dark forest to try to clean ourselves off with wet wipes.  All I remember is having to get rid of my dad’s beloved sweatshirt and Sarah’s favorite blanket.  We also found out that my brothers had found a bathroom literally right around the corner. My mom snapped this photo of us.  Oh, the guilty looks on our faces.  So yes, while it looks like we were kidnap victims on some 80s tv crime drama, we were actually just uber rebellious children who do what they want.

We always swore we’d never speak of this to anyone…but it was Sarah’s birthday and I couldn’t think of anything more special than a memory. Right?