New Kicks

"Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world."

~ Marilyn Monroe 

This past week, my family has been vacationing on Lake Winnepesaukee in NH.  It has been total bliss.  I am happy to report that I was able check off several items on my August "to-do" list along with many others including, but not limited to, sleeping late, eating a lot of ice cream and making rubber band bracelets with my girls.  When we first arrived, we discovered an enormous ropes course at a place called, no joke, Fun Spot.  As it turned out, Fun Spot had several really 'fun' activities to offer us.  But, in order to climb the ropes, swing from the zip lines and drive the go-carts, we all had to have closed toe shoes; ideally sneakers.  We didn't bring a pair for my younger daughter and my older daughter had completely annihilated hers at camp; wearing them for 2 weeks as make-shift flip flops.  So, off to the shoe-outlet we went. (Gotta love NH)  Both girls found a pair of new kicks that made them ridiculously happy the minute they put them on their feet.  Later that day, Grace wore hers into town with a fancy dress to get ice cream.  She skipped around feeling, I'm assuming, fast and free.  I could see her eyeing her reflection in the store windows, lifting one foot up and then the other to see how she looked in her new shoes.  Then last night, Rosie wore her new skips out to dinner, also with a dress.  I could see her moving her feet out from under the table and over to the side every 5 minutes or so to get a look at her shoes.  At one point I caught her doing it and she smiled and said, "they just feel so good, mom."   Amen, sister.  New shoes of any kind are one of life's greatest and simplest pleasures.  And new running shoes...well, for many of us, particularly those of us who run, they are just as amazing, if not more, than a pair of Jimmy Choo's.  (No, I have never owned a pair of those).  All week long, as the girls were running, skipping and jumping in their new sneakers, they felt like, in their own words, "total rock stars".  We never made it over to Fun Spot.  Not that it mattered.

Listen to this:

The Hunter - ON AN ON