30 By 30: #5. Start a Family Tradition That No Other Family Can Duplicate

Check! If there's one thing you might not know about me, it's that I love family traditions. (Actually, you probably did know that about me). I love carrying on family traditions, I love starting family traditions, I love participating in family traditions. All of it! But it's a lot of responsibility - with some high expectations. My personal definition of a family tradition is as follows: Some family action or event that occurs each year, at around the same time each year, for three or more years in a row. I often try to start traditions even if no one else wants to - and sometimes just to get people to help me with stuff (like when I tried to say it was a family tradition for my sister to help me decorate my Christmas tree...). So, you can imagine my delight when climbing the Cobble reached "family tradition" status this year!

(At the top of the Cobble)

Growing up, we climbed the Cobble every now and then. Not enough that it was a family tradition, but often enough that it was something very familiar to me. The Cobble is a small hill/mountain near our farm - there are no trails, you just have to forage your way through brush, tree limbs and leaves until you reach the top - it is a hidden gem! The beautiful thing about it is that no one else knows about it - only my family and a select few neighbors who have been around for a couple generations.

(View of the Cobble from our field - the bare rock at the top is where all of our pictures are taken from)

So, for the past three years, I have coerced my dad and various other people to climb the Cobble each fall in hopes of starting a family tradition. This year, the tradition has been solidified - seeing how it is in it's third year. And, this is a tradition that no other family can duplicate because no one else knows where the Cobble is or how to get there!

(Scott and I pretending to fall off the Cobble - and the first time Brooke is thinking, "my parents are dorks!"

(Scott doing his Lion King impression with Brooke at the top)

Now, you may be thinking, "I'll just type 'Cobble' into google and find it." Ha! You could try, but google will have no record of "the Cobble" since that is the nickname that I use to lovingly refer to our small hill/mountain. It is not it's true geographic name. But that is not the only reason you wouldn't be able duplicate this tradition and climb the Cobble. Even though the Cobble is state land, the only way to access the Cobble is by going on our neighbors property - so you have to call him first to ask if you can walk on his land - and he's not going to just let anyone trespass.

So, with my family tradition protected, we will continue to climb the Cobble each year. And when Brooke is 20 years old, she'll be able to boast that she has climbed the Cobble each year of her life, even when she was in utero.

(Cobble 2009)

(Cobble 2010)

And when Brooke grows up and moves away, she'll still come back every fall to view her farm from afar - from atop the Cobble.

Did I mention I love family traditions? I do!