I certainly wasn't thinking twenty years down the road when I said "yes" to the young man kneeling in front of me on the wooden bridge on Tall Pines Trail. Twenty years later, and a lot of water under the bridge later, we revisited our past and discovered just how much difference a couple of decades can make. It was like a trip down memory lane, or at least down the hiking trail, as we took our family camping at the same state park where my husband proposed.

I remember it like it was yesterday. We were both in the last semester of our senior year of college. We had been dating almost six months. Neither of us really had a plan for life after graduation, or so I thought. I hadn't even begun to seriously consider my employment options. After all, life was good as a student. My dad paid for my car and my part time job covered all my other financial obligations. I was content living in my state of limbo between student and responsible citizen.

I didn't know that my boyfriend was about to shove us both into full fledged adulthood with those four simple words, "Will you marry me?" Quite unexpectedly, as we were hiking down the Tall Pines Trail at Lake Ratcliff, he paused on a footbridge long enough to gain from me a promise that would determine the direction of the rest of my life. With only the squirrels as eye witnesses, I accepted his bended knee invitation to become Mrs. Tony Wier.

From that day forward, we began to plan; first for the wedding and then for real life. It was such a thrilling time to face a world of possibilities and have someone beside me to share my dreams.

Twenty years later we stood on that same footbridge, only this time we weren't alone. Our three teenagers hiked along. As Tony and I shared a sentimental moment, reenacting that pivotal point in our lives, the significance was lost on our children, but not the humor.

"Careful, Dad. You're not as young as you used to be. You want me to help you get up off your knee?"

"Mom, did you have that many wrinkles the last time Dad proposed?"

"No," I insisted, "and I didn't have three smarty pants kids tagging along, either."

Despite their groans and rolling eyes, and even the ravages of time, I wouldn't turn the clock one minute. Planning for life was fun, but living life has been the far greater adventure - made up of things we expected and things we never saw coming.

As we dreamed about our life it included children and a home of our own. We planned for good jobs and enjoying some of life's comforts; we dreamed of baseball games and backyard cook-outs. All that and more we got. Of course, I also dreamed of a summer house in Spain for which I am still waiting.