Babysitting and a grand old story!

I had such a great day! Yep, I got to spend the bulk of the day with our little granddaughter and my namesake, Lucy! What a joy she is. I was outside when I heard her and her mama coming over so I went and opened the gate, Lu was riding in the stroller and when she saw me she outright giggled, then sighed and then started hollering for me to hurry up and get her outta there, she wanted me to pick her up! We had such fun. We went down and hung out at the church, watching the renovations and diverting papas attention for a few minutes (begging to be held and crying when he handed her back), then we went for a walk in the stroller, going and seeing Aunt Bri, Mim, Aunt Connie and Lisa and mommy. It was really fun as we just walked all over the town visiting people and mostly staring at them (its what she does when she doesn't know you). Then we came home for lunch. Watching Lu eat lunch is a blast! I know this sounds all gushy and stuff but it really is a riot. She reaches out and fills her right hand with food and holds it in her fist while she crams her mouth full of food with her left. Only when the food is gone from the tray does she usually then eat from her right hand. I think she's gonna be ambidextrous like her papa. Once in awhile she will get her mouth too full and get this funny squinty look on her face that is a total crack up as she works to swallow it or spit it out. She LOVES fruit and so the rule is, no fruit until she eats her veggies and her protein, but if she knows there is fruit, like she did today (oops, she saw the blueberries) she will refuse to eat until you give her the fruit. Yes, I am a TOTAL sucker for her, especially when she smiles at me or does the snuffy thing at me. So today I just spent the day enjoying our little granddaughter and playing. What a great time! This is a picture of her in her little kitchen! isn't she just the cutest?

My sister Penny wants stories from all of us in the family and as I think about what I would say for my first story I almost chuckle..I will share it here so that she can copy it and print it if she wants it.

One of the most wonderful memories I have of my childhood are the times we would go camping in the South Hills. I haven't returned to those hills since I was a young adolescent but they live on in my mind. Each time we go camping at Diamond Lake, a small part of me is remembering our trips to South Hills. There was no official camp ground where we would go so we would drive a long ways out into the woods on a dirt road that seemed to go on and on forever. At one point, dad would pull the stationwagon over onto the side of the road and we would pile out of the car, all of us, except Carol, and run straight to the creek that ran alongside our special camping spot. I still remember the sound of the creek and the smell of the woods! I have no recollection of setting up camp or building the fire or anything else but I do remember the many times I would get to wade in the creek in the spot next to our campsite. The water was cold and clear and just right for looking for pretty rocks and deep holes that fish might live in. My sisters tell me that I wasn't allowed to go playing in the creek like they did but somehow I have memories of it, I know there are pictures that exist of this magical place so maybe there is physical evidence that I DID indeed get to go play in the water with them! haha! I have a memory of a specific hole that we discovered that was nice and deep and fun to frolic around in, the bed of the creek was soft sandy bottom and really nice on the bottom of the feet! We had a bulldog, Sox, who loved to roam with us and would require saving every once in awhile. My mom and dad would set up camp, apparently, while we were off exploring and playing in the woods and water and then we would run back to camp for dinner. On these camping trips I was not allowed to sleep outside in the tent with the "older" sisters....ummmmmmmm......but would sleep on the front seat of the big old station wagon we had while mom and dad slept in the back of the car with the seats laid flat. By night, a bed, by day, a cooking surface. You see, we didn't own a table or chairs or any fancy stuff that we have to camp with nowadays, nope, we would sit on a chunk of wood or the ground and sleep under the stars. It was a great adventure. On this particular trip, I was 8 years old, I was determined to go fishing. My dad would often fish and many times ended up merely taking care of our fishing poles and hooks and such so if he could sneak off by himself for a bit, even better for him. I got up early that day, wanting to do some fishing of my own. Since I wasn't old enough to wander off by myself I was restricted to staying right there in camp. I walked off just a little, within the campsite, and yelled out to dad, "hey, theres a little hole right here dad!" He laughed, his hoarse, chuckle that he still does, and said, "sweeetie, theres no fish in that hole, its not deep enough." In fact, the hole wasn't very deep at all, the creek wound around and around through the woods, at times being wider and deeper and at times being quite shallow and narrow. There was a little log over the creek at this point, maybe 20 feet away from my parents, and the little hole was just about 2 feet across at its widest point. Never one to discourage his daughters in the realm of fishing, dad shook his head and chuckled when I persisted in plopping my line into the water. I suppose he might have been grateful that I didn't try to cast my line and end up snagging anything that he would have to untangle or rescue! As I dropped my line in, I looked back at daddy and smiled, so proud of myself that I didn't do anything "wrong". He, of course, smiled back and went back to what he was doing, pondering life. I stood there for a few minutes with my line bobbing in the water and suddenly, without warning, I got a bite!!! Yep, you got it, a bite! I was so shocked that I yanked my fishing pole up and consequently also yanked my fish up out of the water! I didn't even try to reel it in! I began screaming and yelling "daddy, daddy, I got a fish! I got one!!!!" Sure enough, on the end of my line was an 8 inch fish. My dad runs over to me and then begins the attempt to get me to calm down long enough to hand him my pole or let him get hold of my fish. It took a few minutes of me jumping up and down in complete joy and excitement before he could get me to calm down long enough to let him help me. All the while, my dad was shaking his head and chuckling at me and the fact that I had caught this really nice fish in a hole he said there would be no fish in! To this day I can bring up that story and my dad will start to chuckle, scratch his head and say, "yeah, I sure was wrong about that fishin hole, in fact, I tried to catch a fish outta that hole and never did, guess there was only on in there!" hahaha! yep daddy, only one!

Have a great weekend guys! We are going to watch Bryce perform at the Toldeo Summer Fest tomorrow night and hang out with family and friends for the fireworks. Have never gone but it should be fun. Bryce wrote a song that is just awesome, I hope I remember my camera!

Okay so I had to show this picture. The other day I set this sprinkler up in our back yard. Our front yard has built in sprinklers which are awesome but when it came time to put in our backyard we ran out of time so now we have to water by "hand". Anyway, I set this sprinkler out and our dog Cola began playing in the water. She literally played in the sprinkler for the entire time it was on, running. leaping, jumping, biting at the water. Kaylee came over and just burst out laughing at her because she was having such a good time in the sprinkler.