Blast from the Past

When we were in New Jersey for Thanksgiving, we took advantage of a nice warm day after the holiday to explore Holmdel Park with Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids haven't been to Longstreet Farm before and we walked around to see the horses, cows, pigs, sheep, etc. and all of the historic buildings.  After the farm, we headed up to one of the many playgrounds to let the kids play.  While we were there, I wanted to do some investigation of times past.  James and I used to visit HP when we were dating, often having picnics there and hiking through the woods.  On one trip, we carved our names into a tree as many teenagers do.  I've always wondered if it weathered the years, and if we could even find the exact location.  So as we walked through the woods this November, I looked at the many trees and read names hoping to find ours.  After a few tries, and a bit off the beaten path, I found it!  I was so excited.  We hadn't dated the carving, but I estimate it to be about 19 years old - sometime from 1992 or 1993.  Thank goodness Grandma had her camera to snap a few photos of our historic find!  The kids wanted us to carve their names below, but we didn't have a knife so we will have to go back another time to add them to the record.

What a fun record of our relationship - as James and I embark upon 20 years together, I am glad to see that it has survived the test of time and I look forward to going back in another 20 years to see if it's still there!