gerrbeck, your story about your son reminds me of something my daughter once did. We were vacationing in the Cayman Islands. Went on a boat trip to swim with the stingrays. It's a very touristy this to do. All of us were busy getting on our gear and couldnt' find our daughter. We searched the boat and then looked overboard. There she was swimming away on her own with all her gear on. I still can't figure out how it happened. Fortunately, she was a great swimmer so the panic was over, but I almost had a cardiac while searching for her.

It's so odd that this topic is now in the forums. Just a couple days ago, while visiting our youngest in Florida, hubby started talking with me about his best years. We were reminiscing about when the kids were young and he said his 30s were his best years. That is when the kids were elementary school age and we were most involved with their lives. Those were indeed the good old days.

It's very hard for me to say when I was the happiest. I was blessed with a carefree childhood where life was a ball in and out of school. Our neighborhood was the absolute best. There were tons of kids and always some kind of game going on.

My 20s were fun becasue that's wehn I got married and had many years without kids so we did lots of fun trips together. However, it was also when we went through years of infertility which I wouldn't want to repeat.

I also enjoyed the years the kids lived at home because I was a SAHM and embraced my job at that time.

Now that the kids are coming and going, mostly gone, I am embracing this time too. It's a fun time to be a couple again with hubby. And it's fun to do more on the spur of the moment which wasn't always easy to do when we had five schedules to consider.

gerrbeck, some of my best memories are from our family vacations. I get such a kick out of looking at the old photos.