Sunday morning, just as it was getting light, we sat together having a quick breakfast out on the cusp of another one of our weekend adventures. The sky was still a dark gray. A soft rain was falling. I looked at my boys and suddenly felt overwhelmed. Tears welled up in my eyes. I said to my husband, "These are the days." These are the days that we will look back on someday when the boy is out in the world on his own, the sparkling days of our golden years as an adventuring threesome. These are the days the boy will remember, the days that will forever be in his psyche...the elixir of our Pacific Northwest family life that runs through his veins. The scents of the damp forest, the songs of mountain streams over rocks, the whispers of the wind in the trees. Days of discovery, days of childhood, days of togetherness.