...the bucket list...

(Sidenote: Look at that wee little bucket!  I remember when he wore it as a hat!)

15 Is Here.

While I'm stuck wondering how exactly all those years flew by before I was ready,

I'm also planning for the year ahead.  

Every year I make a list, usually just pen to pad.  I post it up on the corkboard in the kitchen as a check-off list of To-Do's.

Places to visit.  Restaurants to eat at.  Hikes to attempt.  Trips to take.

Memories to make.

Often as the year winds down, come the neverending days of January, I refer back to it in order to fill up our time and fill in the blank squares of the calendar.  All those useful suggestions I wrote out, helping us push past the winter doldrums.  

There's always a few wishes on there as well.  Trips beyond our reach and budget.  Days beyond our school-break limits.  Those are the ones that always get recycled, finding their way onto the next year's list, unfulfilled and possibly unfulfillable.  Who knows?

Today, I feel the pressure of the year ahead.  I see its ending at 16, only 365 days to enjoy it.  I want him to get the most out of it.  For us to wring every single drop of fun and adventure and experience out of it before it runs out.  

So, I'm making a list. 

A bucket list.

15 for 15:

1. Finish setting up his new business
2. Fill up the calender:
1. Zip-Lining
2. Hiking 
3. Camping (err...maybe in a cabin???)
4. Spontaneous road trip
5. Canoeing, or rafting, or tubing, or all three!
6. Work on that ice-skating!
7. Fishing or crabbing, or both
8. Use the library passes to check out new museums
9. Take the train to a new destination
10. See a Broadway show
11. Rock climbing
12. Roller coasters!
13. Water slides!
14. Biking
15. Take a class together
3. Let him teach me how to 3D design
4. Collaborate on some advocacy pieces, written and/or filmed
5. Switch out the nightly tv episode for a game at least twice a week
6. Take a walk together every day, no matter the weather. (Coats? Umbrellas? Flashlights?  Good to go!)
7. Cook dinner together once a week
8. Let him make breakfast once a week
9. Stay overnight at a hotel just to use the pool and order room service
10. Volunteer together
11. Build a piece of furniture together
12. Try geocaching
13. Try our hand (and eye co-ordination) at golf
14. Waste a day playing arcade games
15. Put him in charge for a week in the summer: have him pick the groceries, plan the meals, choose the activities!  Don't forget to be a good sport...even if he forgets that you NEED coffee!

~Leanna