FALL ON SMITH: A FAVORITE MEMORY

Recently on social media, the team shared memories on beautiful Smith Lake.  This week, founder, Syndi Hanna, shared a favorite memory on Smith:

"After 20+ years on the lake, there are too many great memories, and it is impossibly hard to narrow them down to only one.  But... a particular very late summer stands out.

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In 2007, we had been given the opportunity to spend some long days on a large ranch connected to the lake and owned by friends of ours.  My son, Tylar, was 2 years old at the time, and always wanted to ride around with me on a Ranger while his daddy was working at the property building installing a home theater system for our friend and customer.  One special weekend, the property was particularly quiet and picturesque - a time when it's hard to tell what season it is.  I recall it was late in boating season, summer still lingered, the sun was bright; and there was still lush greenery all around, with only tiny hints of autumn arriving soon with slightly cooler nights.  In the horse fields on the ranch, there were these millions of tiny weeds with yellow flowers everywhere, it seemed there was a blanket of them as far as the eye could see.  

Tylar enjoyed the abundant flowers, butterflies, warm sun, and endless blue sky, with the lake constantly glistening through a spot at the bottom of the property below us.  It was shining like a diamond, inviting us down for one of those special late evening boat rides for stargazing.  I watched Tylar from a safe distance that day, determined to allow him the freedom to explore to his little heart's content.  

Tylar kept his eye on me too, as I sat quietly alone in the Ranger admiring the landscape, and capturing photos of the scenery all around.  All on his own, he walked over to the biggest bunch of little flowers he could wrap his tiny fingers around, and pulled them up and brought them straight over to me, with dirt hanging off the roots, and said "I love you, Mommy"!  It was a first of many flower-picking-for-gifting triumphs since.  

That had to be one of my favorite days/weeks lakeside.  We enjoyed warmth & fellowship by the fire pit at night until well after dark.  It was foggy when we left that night, and I recall how hard it was getting Tylar's sticky fingers clean from the s'mores & soot before the evening boat ride back home, and how we all wrapped up in several dry towels as we'd forgotten warm jackets.  We found those little flowers on the dashboard of the boat that next morning, they had made a huge mess with dirt & marshmallow still clinging in spots.  A bittersweet mess that was easy yet hard to clean up.  Feels like it was just yesterday!" - Syndi