Childhood Memories

While staying at my parents house this last month, I was able to read some of my favorite stories to my own children. My mom still has them and keeps them in the room where my kids slept. My kids loved them just like I did. I used to go to sleep with stacks of books tucked around me and it made me smile to see my little ones falling asleep with the very same books tucked around them. These are just some of them.

I also got to show my children the tiny bedroom I used to share with my two brothers and one sister. It is now my Mom's sewing/crafting room. It is funny to go into that room now. I should explain that my family moved out of that house when I was 8, but my parents moved back into it about 2 years ago. When I go into that old bedroom of mine I really wonder how we all fit into it. I'm just guessing here (maybe you can help me out, Mom) but I think that room is about 6' x 8' with a wardrobe built into one end. I remember thinking the window and wardrobe and my bunk bed were so big when really they were not. I guess that's how my kids see them now.

It was so wonderful having that time with my parents this summer. It brought back lots of great memories for me and made some special memories for my children. It was perfect.

Star Gazing with My Dad

image from Great Images In Nasa

Tonight I got to sit and watch the stars with my Dad. That was something I loved doing as a kid. We star gazed when we went camping, when we were driving at night, or when we happened to be outside on a pleasant summer night just like tonight. This time we enjoyed the Milky Way and watching for satellites and shooting stars. The satellites were a bit disappointing. We saw probably 6 of them be they were all so faint that we would lose sight of them if we looked directly at them. Do you know that trick? Try looking just to the side of a star or satellite and then look directly at it. It's an amazing difference. Tonight Dad and I did see quite a few shooting stars. Probably 12-15 all in about an hour. Some of them even left a visible trail of smoke. I don't think I've ever seen that before.

My Dad and I love to talk to each other. We can talk for hours and hours on topics heavy or light. It is so wonderful. Star gazing always gets us going. We had a very nice visit tonight. I learned things from him and about him. He told me that he used to watch for satellites with his dad and what great times those were for him. I don't think I knew that. He showed me again how to find the Little Dipper and the North Star. And as always I came away from our time together feeling loved, uplifted, and very grateful to have the dad I have. Thanks, Dad. I love you.

On the Road

We are leaving later this week to go visit our family 500 miles away. The kids and I will be gone for a whole month! That is such a long time, but I'm really looking forward to it. I don't know how regular my blogging will be, but I'll check in when I get a chance. The next couple of days will be spent packing and cleaning. And then we hit the road. I thought I'd post a picture of a road sign that I took in Wyoming a couple of years ago. It still makes me laugh.

Memories of Road Trips

Today is Wordfull Wednesday from Chocolate on My Cranium. Visit Cocoa's super blog to read more Wordfull Wednesday entries. The topic for today is memorable family vacations or summer time memories.

There are two family vacations that I remember most, however I sometimes get a little mixed up as to what actually happened on which vacation. Both of them were long road trips from Idaho to Tennessee to visit my great-grandmother, Grandmama Templin. The first was when I was 5 and the second when I was 8. We had a little red station-wagon, and my parents just folded down the back seat and laid out some blankets for my brothers and I to lay on and away we went. We had such a wonderful time back there! We counted semi trucks and played games like Cat in the Window and Bug. Sometimes my mom would take a nap in the back and I would get to sit up front with my dad and be the navigator. That was always a prized spot! When I was old enough, being the navigator meant that I would study the map and then make decisions about where we were going and which road we would take to get there. I'm sure my dad gave his input, but I was still the navigator and was in charge of getting us to our destination. That was a great feeling to have.

We couldn't just drive straight to Tennessee without stopping, and so we did stop at some wonderful places. Even though I was only five I can still remember looking at Mt. Rushmore and seeing those great big stone faces. We also stopped at Nauvoo. The only thing I really remember from Nauvoo is a little cemetery we walked through. We also stopped in Missouri to visit my Aunt Ruby. She was not really my aunt, but a cousin of my great-grandfather, but she was an aunt to us. I remember going with her to visit an old house out in the country, and it seems that it had been a house that she or maybe her mother had lived in as a child. There were some loose boards with nails strewn around, and I remember she held my hand and made sure I stepped carefully. Some time I need to write a whole post just about Aunt Ruby.

Finally we made it to Tullahoma, TN. I remember sleeping in sleeping bags in Grandmama's living room with my brothers. We did a little sightseeing with Grandmama, driving around the beautiful hills of Tennessee. I had never seen so many deciduous trees! We also went to Lynchburg and toured the Jack Daniels distillery. When we went into the huge room with the giant vats of corn mash, I just about got sick from the smell and one of my parents had to quickly take me out. Isn't it funny the things you remember? I remember going for a ride with Grandmama in her great big black car.

I don't have any pictures of Grandmama so I got this picture from my Uncle Jim's blog.

I only got to visit Grandmama three times before she died, but I am so grateful for each of those visits. I was young and don't remember very much now, but I do remember Grandmama and what she looked like and how she talked and what her house looked like and smelled like and what a neat yard she had and how she loved us.