How to Build on Family Unity

Beginning when our kids were quite young, our annual summer vacation would be at the Sunriver Resort, outside of Bend, Oregon, in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. For many years we would load our four kids’ bikes on top of our mini-van and travel the 900+ miles to our rental house for the week. We were quite the sight for other travelers on the interstate. It left no doubt in their imagination what we were planning to do on our vacation.

Besides the 30 miles of bike paths to explore in Sunriver, we loved to go horse-back riding, kayaking or canoeing down the Deschutes River and play miniature golf.

During one such vacation, we happened to walk by a little apparel store and found that they offered custom t-shirt printing right there on the premises. So we selected a Sunriver logo for the front and then let each child pick the color for their own shirt. We had “Crawdad” (a nickname for Jim when he was in college) and their birth-order number printed under that name on the back.

As the kids got older and outgrew their Crawdad shirts, we made a point to return to the apparel store to purchase new ones.

Back home in southern California, Jim would make a random announcement from time to time early on a Saturday morning yelling throughout the house, “It’s a Crawdad-shirt day!” The kids would run around like crazy to find their own shirt and partake in this fun ritual that we had as a family. We made sure to have a fun event planned to coincide with wearing the shirts together that day.

I still recall the smiles we received when we walked into a local restaurant for dinner. Or when we worn them for a picnic at a local park. Who wouldn’t smile at the sight of us wearing such goofy shirts?

Many years later, even our treasured golden retriever became Crawdad 7.

Now our kids have long outgrown their t-shirts, but those fun & silly family memories are etched forever in our minds. As their mom, and the guardian of all things sacred, I made sure to place the beloved t-shirts in each child’s “memory box” so that one day, they can share with their spouse and children what it meant to be a member of the Crawdad family.

Where’s mine today? It’s still in my closet, waiting for Jim to yell from downstairs, “It’s a Crawdad-shirt day!” I can still hear his voice calling me…