So many pictures...

Whew! What a weekend!  I am almost glad to be headed back to work tomorrow!

I have to admit, it was fun reading Johns "guest" blog and I think he had fun writing it!  He really is my best friend.  The past weeks have been so full of upheaval but we have a visit with Thane and Becky and a wedding to look forward to.

My last blog, I told you about the car we rode in and I have some pics of inside the car...To tell you the truth, the idea of ever driving that distance in a rig like that is something I never want to do again.

John and Richard.  John got to play with Penny's I touch...yes, he decided he wants one!

Okay so not the greatest pics but you get the idea of where Connie and I were sitting...and yes, that is the tip of my sister Penny's nose!

I wanted to just post a few pics and a couple of notes about the people in them...Mostly because I just love looking at the pics myself...

John and I were playing around in front of the Depot Grill pretending to be Saturday night Live (and Connie was trying to learn how to use her camera)... a diner that we used to eat in when we were kids. My dad used to tell the story about me eating my weight in pancakes once when he took me there, just me and him.  As we sat there, I kept wanting to cry...until THIS happened!

John had ordered a bowl of clam chowder and a salad. The waitress brought this bowl of white "liquid" and sat it down and he looked at it and started dredging his crackers in it. As he sat there dipping crackers and preparing to eat it, Penny's phone rang...I don't remember who asked him if he was going to eat that bowl of dressing....Yep, it was a small bowl of ranch dressing and John thought it was his clam chowder.  We all started laughing and poor Penny couldn't continue her conversation all that easily.

This picture makes me laugh!  John was sitting there, between my two sisters and talking to them when I lifted up the camera he started hamming it up, unfortunately for him I suppose, I got a funny shot of his face! He was joking around about them being "his girls...."  And yes, we went through GALLONS of coffee!

Ahhhhh, Jason! Our nephew Ja is the BEST! Connie and I were sitting on a loveseat talking amongst ourselves when this big lug came and plopped down between us and sat there for a good hour, making us laugh hard enough to cry.  I so love him and he is such a great guy, with a good heart and a wonderfully funny personality and quick wit!  I told him that he was so much fun to be around and he said, "aunt Lucy, I am only like this around you guys, usually I am really serious!"  I felt so honored to be amongst the ones that he lets his guard down and is silly with.  He was a lot of fun and it was awesome to see him (and the rest of the fam)

I HAD to include this shot! John and I were sitting there on the window ledge (that same on he sat on in the pic with my sissies) and I was messing around with my camera.  I didn't realize the flash was on and I was maybe two feet from my brother in law (known him since I was 5) and had the camera pointed at that group you see in the background but when I took the shot my camera flash bulb went off and blinded Richard! We got to laughing so hard, the 3 of us and it so blinded him that he had to take off his glasses.  No one else in the room knew what was going on but us...

My sister Teri, Aunt Ellen, sister Carol and Connie.  We had just met Aunt Ellen and were sitting around talking, listening to her tell stories and getting to know her a little bit.  It was so overwhelming to meet her finally and to see her was a shock. She is the exact replica of my dad! What a joy she is! Twinkling blue eyes, and a sweet joy about her. Later, the next day, Connie and I were sitting talking to her about her life and Connie tapped me on the shoulder, saying, "Lucy, there is your kindred spirit"! It was so validating.  

 It seems we were somewhat of a, um, anomaly...I don't know what word to use but when we stood here in this small group, there were people snapping pics like crazy! We had grabbed Uncle Larry and Aunt Ellen to take pictures with us and after that, stood there while they told us stories about our dad when he was a boy. We were laughing about one at the moment this one was taken. Uncle Larry told it this way.  Dad was small, like Aunt Ellen, 5'3" and Larry and their other brother Don (passed away a long time ago) are/were both over 6'0 tall. Apparently my dad was a fighter back in the day and he and Don would go at it out at the farm. One day they got in a fight and were out in the yard duke-ing it out. Aunt Virginia, who was a worry wart, according to Uncle Larry and Aunt Ellen, sent Larry out to sing while they fought, hoping it would stop them.  He sang some song about a place in heaven and though this little boy sang his heart out, making up verses as he went, it didn't stop dad and uncle Don in their fight.  He said he stood there, singing, with Virginia wringing her hands in worry and dad and Don punching each other out!  I could just see my daddy, spunky and lean and going at it with his brother. I think the war took all that fight out of him. 

The pose.....Yes, Carol looks hunched over, don't really know why! hahahahahaha!

We stopped along the way at Cabela's headquarters in Sydney Nebraska and yes, thats my two fingers in between Richard and Penny! 

Carol and I, walking together. 

The headstone that marks the family plot...It is hard to even describe the emotions that I have upon seeing that name written there. In a way, I am glad I didn't see dads there. Its hard enough, knowing he rests there now. I did love seeing our grandmothers headstone....

Did I already post this picture? I can't remember now that I have put it on here but anyway...This was taken after we had been at dads house, trying to make sure and get what we needed to save out of the house. We each got a couple of things we really treasured and hoped to preserve, most of all, historical things and pictures of our childhood.  So, there is a water tower in the lot across from dads house and when us girls were out there this summer, we took some pics.  We wanted to "duplicate" the shot. I sat the camera on a snowbank to get the shot and then ran through snow that was 2 feet deep to get in the pic, yep, I fell through a few times.  Good times!