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First... what a GREAT contest! The book was amazing (and super scary) so I'm dying to see how the movie came out (and shocked it's a family movie. Did I mention the book was scary!?)

The adventure that comes to mind for me would be last Mothers Day at the Marin Headlands in the bay area. There are a lot of abandoned old bunkers and we had a wonderful ocean cliff pic nic. You feel like you're in the Irish cliff sides there, it is that beautiful. Well, my teenage son was very interested in the bunkers and went exploring with his cell phone as a flashlight. There were holes in floors, rusty doors, broken relics and enough to give Neil Gaimen book fodder for years to come. We had a lot of fun and it's a memory my son won't soon forget.

Camping with my dad along the Snake River in Idaho was a favorite adventure.  Even at my young age I recognized the perfect beauty of that outdoor scene.  Dad would fish.  He taught us to fish, too, but I wasn't very enthusiastic about standing still and waiting for a fish to bite.  I just loved being there, doing almost nothing but being a kid in the sunshine. 

   When I first read the description for this contest ‘Favorite Childhood Adventure’, I thought to myself, ‘Brain, work already!  Think…what is your most wonderful, fantastic childhood adventure?’.  I have to be honest, I was a STRANGE Child and, due to unmentioned events in my Childhood, I honestly blocked out a huge amount of anything memorable (good or not so good).  Since I have been a Mother for the past 17 years, I have been lucky enough to remember quite a bit of the 'good' Childhood Memories :) and, I have my WONDERFUL Children to thank for this :)!!  I have always had a rather extensive imagination, whether it be at play or daydreaming in general! 

   From what I heard and read on my birth certificate, I was born in Michigan.  After the age of one, my Father moved the whole Family all the way to Texas where we were raised.  I had no memories of ever living in Michigan, much less of the snow (as it is hard to remember events at the age of 1... yet, I do have some memories of being behind BARS...LOL j/k :)!!).  I couldn’t honestly imagine what it was like to roll up three different size snowballs for molding into a snowman or, what it was like to have a snowball fight or how it felt to be covered from head to toe in snow!  I was too little to remember all of this snow…that was… UNTIL…. I was about 5 or 6 years old!  I was fortunate enough to accompany my Family on a trip back to Michigan to visit our Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles.  That helped my mind to form a clear memory of all of these wonderful ‘Snow Events’!!!  I know…I know, you are wondering where I am going with all of this…just hang in there a bit longer and I PROMISE you will see the BIG picture :)!!!  For those of you who have never experienced more than 5 or 6 inches of snow…just picture yourself in a GIANT freezer FULL of huge piles of slush!!!  Ya know… I’m going to speed the timer up a bit…to about 9 or 10  years of age.  Let’s see, how can I start this memory???  Hmm….Ok, I GOT it!!!! 

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 Once upon a time (yeah, that’s original!), there lived a sweet little girl (ok, well, maybe not THAT sweet!) who had quite a wild imagination.  We’ll call this girl Jeriah (to conceal her identity….RIGHT!).  Jeriah not only loved to play, she also loved to pretend a LOT!  One evening she was bored and wanted to play but, all of her friends were either not home or out playing somewhere else.  She couldn’t play with her Older Siblings as, they were busy doing home work.  She couldn’t play with her baby Brother because she wanted to play outside and he wasn’t allowed outdoors after dusk.  So, Jeriah did the next best thing she knew how to do, she played by herself!  Jeriah picked herself up, mind and all, went out her front door and sat on the cracked steps leading to the front yard.  As she sat there…she thought and thought and thought.  ‘What can I play’, she thought to herself.  Then, suddenly her mind began to wander (as it usually did).  She remembered the snow from that far away planet where she was born!  She remembered sliding down hills in a sled, making snowmen, tasting the snow and having wonderful snowball fights with her Family.  Then, she had an idea!!!  She walked over to the back yard and grabbed a plastic swimming pool which had been leaning against the side of the house for months.  Jeriah grabbed ahold of the pool pulling it behind her until she arrived at the perfect spot for her imagination to take over.  She lay the pool down and went back into her house to grab a few other items: a blanket, a pillow, her dolly and some snacks (in case she became hungry later).  Where could Jeriah be going??!!!  (sounds exciting, doesn’t it!!!)

   Jeriah lay back, pillow under her head, tucking herself and her dolly in under the beautiful blanket her Grandmother had bought her last Christmas.  As she lay there under the big night time sky, she couldn’t help but to continuously gaze at all the stars.  (ok…what does this memory have to do with SNOW?  Keep reading!!!)

   Without warning, she could feel the cool winter breeze gracefully propel itself against her soft skin.  She closed her eyes as she relaxed snuggled up all warm except for the tinge of ice on her nose.  Within a moments breath, she opened her eyes and to her shock….SNOW!!!!  All around her there was snow!!!  White, mushy, gushy, soft, tasty, cold SNOW!!!!  It was literally POURING from the heavens as the BIGGEST snowflakes she’d EVER seen!!!  (DO you understand now…hello….imagination!!!) No sooner had she realized what was going on, did had to clasp onto her dolly with one hand and with her other onto the edge of the pool!  The little plastic pool…(WAIT….it wasn’t a pool…it was a….convertablized space ship!) had begun to rumble a bit.  She could even feel the ground begin to slip right from beneath her.  Even though she was in shock, she realized what was happening!  Her short lifetime dream would soon come TRUE!  She just KNEW in a few moments she would be a tiny dot up there in that HUGE dark blue sky!!!

   She held so tight as the space ship slid away, slowly at first then, faster and faster and FASTER…..ZOOM….all the way down that long and slanted  (what used to be grassy) snowy hill.  For a moment fear bestowed her mind for, right there at the very end of this hill was… an ENDING!!!  Jeriah felt the fear sweep even stronger through her body as she closed her eyes as tightly as she possibly could!  (little did she know, magic was about to set in…the magic in the night…from her IMAGINATION!!!).

   After what felt like an eternity and with no horrifying and painful reaction from her giant space ship sled ride,  Jeriah slowly pried her eyes open.  It felt as if  the space ship were no longer moving and she really believed that she HAD actually imagined it all (HOW do you imagine something WHILE you are imagining…I suppose it can be done!). She was actually disappointed after all of that, thinking she was still laying in the pool on the grassy hill in the front of her house.  Suddenly AGAIN she felt something dart through her body.  This time the feeling wasn’t fear.  It was a very different feeling.  It was as if  something was trying to tell her things just were NOT normal like they had been right  before she began using her  imagination (but then, what is normal?).  As she sat straight up, baby doll clutched tightly to her chest, she started to become aware of her surroundings.  All she could really see was color…a dark black/blue color.  It even looked almost creamy.  Still puzzled she looked even closer….closer….and closer to the edge of the pool she began to lean…”Oh my GOODNESS,”, she blurted out almost screaming, “Oh MY GOODNESS!!!”.  Then a HUGE smile crept up on her now rosy face for, she had just discovered that she WAS in that space ship!  No longer was **** sitting on that grassy or snowy hill…or sliding down that snowy hill to nowhere….she was NOW in outer space… looking straight down at a tiny little Earth…  just as she had dreamt of since forever! 

   …There she lay, pillow under her head, tucked in, baby doll and all,  underneath her snuggly ol’ bedspread… staring at the mysterious dark blue sky, wondering, dreaming…what it would be like to be floating calmly up in the sky with the stars surrounding her rather than located above her!  She wondered!!!

The END?  Or is it?!!!