We were out and about yesterday, “making hay while the sun shone,” as the saying goes. Here in the Seattle area we have to take advantage of every sunny day. We don’t get that many. I think our summer season began a few days ago. At a local mall, I stopped to snap this photo. My subjects were a little reluctant…until they saw the finished product. They agreed it was touching, after I told them the story that went along with it.

I remember a doting father who would proudly hoist his precious, little daughter onto his broad shoulders, carrying her everywhere we went. And when we visited the zoo, any zoo, he would eagerly show her the animals pacing back and forth in their habitats…including the long-necked giraffes. With broad smiles and laughing eyes, father and daughter would be lost in a world of their own making…whether gazing at wildlife…or playing “Pretty, Pretty Princess” when dad would dress up in hat, jewelry and purse…or building an igloo in our front yard in frigid, Connecticut temperatures…or swimming like fish in the warm Hawaiian waters during visits with family.

Sitting side-by-side today, painted giraffe looking down…a knowing smile upon its lips, daughter and pops, with their cheshire smiles, still share their own secret world…where mom can only guess what they’re thinking. Are they saying “cheese” for the camera? Or are they agreeing that…mom’s a goofball?

and will i ever know?…or are they too loving…to say?………hugmamma.  😉