Summer fun with Mom

Idea stolen from Poppycedes because all original ideas found here revolve around... OUCH MY F_ING RIBS HURT. Yes yes my friends my seemingly month affliction of a pinched nerve in my ribs is back. *insert much moaning and cussing here*

When I was a kid my mom would toss us kids in the car and just head out. Often she'd get to the end of a road and say, "Left or Right." If it was at night and we were "out for a drive" then we'd head out into the hills and explore dirt roads and driveways. We saw tons of wild critters and one of my foster brothers and I would sit in the back of my mom's old T-Bird and call out... OH there's an Owl, OH there's a deer, OH there's a skunk. I'm not sure I was much over 4 or 5 at the time. Once, on one outing, we hit a locked gate, on a very narrow dirt road with a drop off on one side and a cliff on the other. My mom had to turn that boat of a car around. I think it was close to a 55 thousand point turn. The whole time my brother and I sat on the floorboard in the back saying, "We're going to die, if we die, you feed the dogs ok.""If we die, you can have my baseball cards." Until my mother told us to "shut the hell up already no one was going to die, unless she killed us." So then we whispered.

Another crazy trip was going to Oregon for a night out. We drove up one day, stayed the night and spent the next day coming home doing touristy stuff. We had just walked through our front door when the phone rang and it was my Nana. My mother and her were talking and my sister and I heard her say, "sure we'll come get you. Umm, about 3 hours." So we hopped right back in the car and headed back out the oppisate direction. Right at the end of the road this time.

My mother always took us to the river every summer. She'd load up all the kids who were staying with us and load ice chests and boxes and cars and out we'd go. Sometimes just for a day away playing in the river, sunbathing and swimming. Sometimes for a week at the river camping. We always went. We always had a ton of "kids" with us and we always had fun.

What did you do with a parent that you enjoyed as a kid?