Underwater Swimming

This was a fun picture to paint. Once again I used Crayola watercolor paint.  I'm not sure why I've become fascinated using this paint over my nice tubes, but perhaps it’s just fun to see if I can paint something half way decent with paint like my grand-kids use in elementary school. The paint is vibrant and with only 8 colors it just makes painting less serious – and feeling less serious allows me to be a little more creative!!  

I painted this just a couple of weeks ago when I was in Southern California with my parents while my mom was dealing with some serious health issues (August 2016).  I guess being with my parents in the summer and having some downtime caused me to want to paint something summery and something that reminded me of growing up in California. I remember my summer days as joyful and relaxing, without too much structure. I often called my best friend, Dawn, who lived down the street, to meet me at the pool. In those days, it was very rare to have a neighborhood pool. Now days, there are more and more of them. But for us, it was unique. So swimming and being in the sun was just part of regular summer living, along with laying on our backs to look at the clouds, going bike riding, and buying ice cream from the ice cream man whenever we were lucky enough for our parents to give into our begging for such a treat. Memories!! Aren’t they fun?!

My parents, Keith & Lucile, taken a couple of years ago.

I think being with my parents for 2 weeks has caused me to reminisce a bit. What a joy it was to spend time with dad and mom, even though it wasn’t under the best circumstances. I hope mom gets well soon, but thanks for the sweet memories I’ll have of this summer being with the two of you.

As part of my reminiscing, I took some time to search for photos of me swimming in our pool while growing up, but sadly, I couldn’t find any. But here’s a few depicting some of my other summer memories.

This photo of me was taken in August of 1964

If I wasn’t in the pool, I was often running through the sprinklers! 

This photo is of my younger sister, Regina, and me. 

Watermelon...summer! They go together!

I sell tags on Etsy called: Tags by Trudy
This is one of them.

Trudy Tibbitts & Linda Rameson

This is a picture of my next door neighbor, Linda, and me. She was a great friend, but she moved when we were fairly young. Her dad taught me how to swim and so just for fun - going along memory lane - I’m adding this photo to my post and a paragraph from a history my mom wrote about me, as if I was the writer.  

A very good friend and neighbor, Fred Rameson, taught me how to swim during the summer of 1964. I was just 4 years old. I always wore a life jacket when I went into our pool to swim and had lots of fun. One day I got my finger shut in the door just as we were all going down to the pool at the end of Ramona Vista (a pool that 12 families owned who lived on our street called the Ramona Vista Recreation Center). I told Mom I wouldn’t put on the life jacket because I was just going to sit on the step and hold my hand up. I sat there for a while and before I knew it there I was in the water swimming just like I usually did when I had the life jacket, only I was without the jacket. I surprised myself as well as Mom who was watching. So from then on I really practiced and got better all the time. Fred would come over and make me swim across the pool several times telling me to “reach way out” and pull my arms down by my body, which really helped me a lot. During the summer of 1965 I learned to jump off the high dive and dive off the side of the pool and swam the length of the pool lots of times. And finally, just before the swimming season ended in September 1965, I went down the slide. For some reason I couldn’t get enough courage to do that one thing. But I love to swim. I took a swimming course at the city pool during the summer of 1965 and I was advance from the beginner’s group right through to the divers group in about a week. I was one of the littlest and youngest there. My very good friend and next door neighbor, Linda Rameson, is a very good swimmer and she was in that class, too. Our hearts were all heavy and we were so sad when Fred Rameson died on September 4, 1965. He had been our very good friend ever since we moved here to Hemet and had taught me how to swim and enjoy it. I wondered how Regina would learn to swim now that Fred had died because he knew just how to teach beginners. (End of paragraph from my history)

Swimming...part of my growing up years. I love summer. I always have! It's such a carefree time of life. 

In closing, while at my parents my dad and I often took our projects into the family-room so we could be with mom as she lay on the couch trying to regain her strength. Sometimes we watched t.v. or a movie. On several occasions we watched different things from YouTube, including this darling interview of 3 women and their daughters. The interview took place on Brigham Young University in 1999 and the women interviewed were the wives of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This interview is so very entertaining and so well worth watching. I wanted to add a link to it with this post because Marjorie Hinckley, the wife of the Prophet at that time, and the last speaker, talked about her summer days growing up and how they had their children spend their summer days. And so I thought it would be fitting to share this on this post about summer. Besides, Marjorie Hinckley was just absolutely darling and funny.  I hope whoever is reading this post will watch this. It was wonderful. Here's the link: Wives & Daughter of The First Presidency (1999). 

Happy summer!! Actually, school starts in my town this week...so summer is coming to a close. So sad!

4th of July Rockets

My painting of fireworks

Over the last several years while on road trips my husband, Del, has dictated to me stories about his life while I scribbled them on paper. I love his stories and for some time I’ve dreamed of turning his stories into books with him as the author and me the illustrator. So far he has 30 stories and I’m only half way done with the first book I hope to publish. Wishing my grand-kids could have access to these fun stories now, I decided I wanted to post them on my blog. I’ve only posted 3 of his stories so far, so here’s another. 

The beginning of our hike. It's beautiful!!

But first…just a comment about our 4^th of July celebration this year. My daughter Stephanie, her husband Josh, and 2 month old son Luke, were here with us while moving from New Mexico to South Dakota. Being the hikers that they are, they convinced Del and I to take a 6 mile hike with them. We figured if they could hike for 6 miles with Luke in their arms, so could we! So we gathered some snacks, water and our tennis shoes and headed hiking to the lower and upper Palisades Lakes for our 4th of July celebration. 6 miles??? It is 15.6 miles! We actually hiked all of it, but there were times that I seriously wondered if I'd make it! I admit, I kept wondering if the people who rode past us on their horses would pick me up. I was almost willing to offer money for a ride back, but of course, I didn't hike with any cash! Well...we did make it all the way...but with Del's and my legs aching, Stephanie and Josh were good enough to forgo our yearly tradition of meeting the whole community on the banks of the Snake River for fireworks that night. We were sure we couldn’t walk another mile or two to get to our favorite viewing spot. So we exchanged fireworks this year for hot dogs and s’mores over a gas grill and the movie “National Treasure.”

Josh, Stephanie and baby Luke comfortable in the sling!

Del & Trudy
We made it to the upper lake - with the return trip ahead of us.

So...here's Del's story about one of his 4th of July celebrations. This is a true story. We removed names from this story to protect the innocent…I mean the guilty!!

The Fourth of July Rockets

There’s a good reason why some fireworks are not considered safe and sane. It’s also foreseeable to recognize that when fireworks fall into the hands of college students there use would most likely result in minor property damage if not physical bodily harm. This type of story can only be told with a disclaimer – don’t try this at home!

My roommate who drove truck on the weekends returned from Southern California having gathered up an array of bottle rockets, some small, some very large. These had been carelessly disseminated amongst several nearby apartments where I lived at the time.

The first evidence that trouble was afoot was when we were sitting in our apartment watching television and heard a curious noise from the adjacent apartment. As the drilling sound ceased we noticed a small hole appear through the wall in our kitchen area with a chrome towel rack pipe extending out of it. Mere moments passed until the purpose for the tube became evident as bottle rockets began to flash from the end of the tube and blaze across our apartment landing in an adjacent bathroom. While essentially pinned down, we were able to pull together a counterattack returning fire by launching bottle rockets from our end of the tube. A childish college activity!

Sometime later, this being around the 4^th of July, the local community put on a fireworks display from the stadium. We either didn’t have tickets or it cost more than we were willing to pay, so several of us decided to simply take our lawn chairs up and sit on the roof to watch the display. While so doing my roommate decided he would like to launch one of his gigantic bottle rockets, which he had purchased in Mexico. Now you typically need a piece of pipe to launch these rockets, but of course, we didn’t have one. Not such a brilliant idea was using the plumbing standpipes located on the top of the building. He lit the bottle rocket and dropped it down the standpipe. The bottle rocket came whooshing out of the pipe, rocketed into the air and exploded into a beautiful array of color. Everybody enjoyed the display except for an unfortunate fellow apartment dweller. As it turned out he had gone down into his apartment below to use the restroom. As pressure from the rocket launch recoiled it apparently blew much of the water out of the toilet bowl, which left the user both befuddled and wet! It certainly was an experience he will never forget - having a toilet bowl unexpectedly turn into a fountain.

Grandkids for a visit!

 

I started this painting a year ago during raspberry season. I pulled it out last night around 11 pm …painted until 1:00 am, climbed into bed and couldn’t sleep. Such is my life…I’d rather paint than sleep.

 

This painting also reminded me of this past week with Kristi, Jackson and Sadie - they came for a visit right during raspberry picking season. So I decided to make a post of our fun week!

 

I loved picking raspberries with these cute grandkids. I think they ate more than they picked…

but aren’t they cute?!

 

 

 

Eager to eat raspberries while we had plenty of them, we ate them on waffles, French toast, ice cream, angel food cake,  pie, and of course, fresh off the bushes.

 

We kept busy while they were here – FUN BUSY…

 

We took the kids to Tautphaus Park to ride the rides. I used to ride the same rides when I was a kid visiting my grandparents on our summer vacation (I hope they’ve tightened the screws and oiled the pullies since then!).

 

 

 

 

 

30 minutes playing a make-believe baseball game!!

 

 

We went to Del’s 44^th high school reunion in American Falls. The kids swung  for over an hour while Del visited with a bunch of “old” people. Are we really that old?! Afterwards we drove past the cemetery where Del's parents are buried. Kristi misses our traditional visits to the cemeteries over Memorial Weekend, so we went to the American Falls Cemetery to reminisce about Del's parents.

The highlight of the day was eating at Red Lobster in Pocatello.


For a 4-year old, Jackson has the tastes buds of an adult! He asked for crab legs! I wish we had a picture of him eating them. He loves crab - cracking the shell, getting the meat, and eating it!

 

 

 

 Sadie, age 2, loved the Salmon, mashed potatoes, and broccoli

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highlight was touching a real lobster!

 

 

 

 

 

 

At church on Sunday Jackson raised his hand to answer a question (He always had “2 things to say” letting others take their turn before raising his hand to say “2 more things” – cute!) for one of his comments he said in one sentence with no pause, as if they were a connected: “Jesus died on the cross because of mean men and I pet a real lobster!”

 

We also went fishing at Warm River. While saying a prayer on our picnic food, his mom thanked Heavenly Father for Warm River. Jackson leaned over to his mom and whispered during the prayer: “Why is it called Warm River? It’s a cold river!” Cute, and true! He knew first hand it was cold as they were in the water quite a bit and we also floated the river. I’m not sure if “floating” is the correct word…I think we pushed us along with our hands as we kept getting stuck in the rocks…it’s a very shallow river!)

 

Jackson fishing

 

Grandma, Sadie, and Jackson, with Grandpa fishing in the background

 

Grandson following Grandpa!

Sadie did her own kind of fishing!



 Jackson fished a good portion of the day. We thought he was oblivious to the fact that he didn’t have a hook on the end of his line. But later that night his mom told him that they might go fishing with their dad when they returned and would have to buy him his own fishing pole. To this comment he said: “this time I want a fishing pole with a hook.”

 

Jackson  sitting on a rock in the middle of the river fishing where Grandpa was earlier.

 

 

This was our biggest catch of the day! Grandpa Quack Quack (his acquired nickname from Jackson because he can speak “Donald Duck” language) wondered if he also was missing a hook!



I squeezed in my favorite thing to do at Warm River - watercolor painting!

 

Two other highlights of their trip were riding in Grandpa Quack Quack’s sports car and on his lawn mower! The simple joys of childhood!!

 

Jackson & Sadie in Grandpa Quack Quack's sports car!

 



Jackson on lawn mower with grandpa

 

Sadie on lawn mower with grandpa
 

All on her own, Sadie ran up to Grandpa and thanked him for the lawn mower ride!

We miss you Kristi, Jackson and Sadie!! Our house seems awfully quiet without your smiley faces but I bet your dad is glad you're back home! Don’t forget, Sadie and Jackson, to always keep smiling so you can be in our smiley club!! (We face-timed them on the night they returned back home. Hanging on their wall was a white paper plate with a smiley faced drawn on it. All on his own, Jackson drew the smiling face and had it hung up to remind them about the smiley club!)

 

Summer & Little-Guy-Ostrich

A few weeks ago I saw a cute ostrich painting on Pinterest. I wanted to see if I could paint it. Thinking it was just a trial painting I turned over one of my paintings I had nearby to test it out on the backside of the page. I then decided to grab my kids former 8-color-count Crayola Watercolor paints – maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was going to be blowing paint through a straw like I did in grade school, but regardless the reason, I’m glad I did! I think the colors turned out very fun. The whole project was fun! I think using the back of watercolor paper, Crayola watercolor paints, and blowing through a straw “allowed” me to just have fun like a kid! Not everyone probably likes this kind of painting, but I fell in love with this little character and can’t stop looking at it. It currently sits in my kitchen, unframed, and totally not in sync with my décor, but he makes me smile! Don’t the colors just scream “summer”?!!

 

We recently went to visit my daughter and her family in Kentucky. My grandchildren were excited for me to take my watercolors and paint with them, so that’s what we did. I showed them how to paint my colorful ostrich, and look how great their paintings turned out! I’m not sure if they had more fun painting or taking pictures of their paintings, but we had a great time!!

 

Last night, after a day of being mostly indoors, I wanted that “summer feeling” about the time I should have been heading to bed. So I pulled out the Crayola Watercolors and designed and painted my own ostrich pictures, using those summer colors once again. What an enjoyable way to end a day!!

 

Happy summer to everyone! I hope you’re enjoying the outdoors and if you can’t always be outdoors, grab your Crayola paint and give it a try!! Just paint little sections at a time and blow the paint  around while it's still wet, using a straw. Protect the eyes and paint them last. The blue and black will make them pop next to all those summer colors. Then add some shadow with the blue paint and you’ll be smiling like me! I showed my niece how to do this, and even though she hasn’t painted much, she too is smiling and showing her painting to others. These ostriches just simply make me happy!

 

Side note: There's a sweet story about kindness and lemonade that took place on a hot summer day. Check this link out.

 "The Power of Kindness" in the article "George Albert Smith: He Lived as He Taught"

 

Down Memory Lane

I am sharing 3 of my paintings/cards with this post. These paintings remind me of flowers on Memorial Day. The words on the card reminds me of the “thanks” I feel for my deceased relatives. Del’s and my grandparents and parents used to decorate the graves, just as we do now. They picked flowers from their yards, which I find hard to do in Idaho Falls as I can’t find many in bloom yet. I don’t know how they found any either. I remember Peony flowers as ones they picked for decorating graves. Perhaps that’s the problem! We tried growing them several times, but have never been successful!

 It is Memorial Weekend in May 2016. Del and I have the tradition of visiting the graves of our relatives in Idaho Falls, Shelton, Blackfoot and American Falls, all in Idaho. While driving I started reminiscing about the past, one of the best reasons for dropping off flowers at their grave sites. As we drove to the Rose Cemetery in Idaho Falls and to Shelton, visiting my grandparent’s graves, I wrote a letter to my parents (sorry it’s a bit lengthy) in an attempt to share with them some of my memories. This is my letter to them:

 

 Hi dad and mom,

 We couldn’t decide what to do for date night, so we grabbed some flowers and headed to visit Rose and Shelton Cemeteries. We followed the same routine as we always do, stopping at Sherie’s grave first. We laid a few flowers by her tiny little grave marker, the size reminding us she was a stillborn infant. How you managed through having 3 babies develop full term, but die before being born, is beyond me. How grateful I am to know and believe in a resurrection/life after death, and for ordinances that allow us to be with our loved ones in the next life! I guess that’s how you made it through those times too. Her plaque reads “Tibbetts” with an “e” instead of an “i” but that’s okay! I know she’s my sister. Amazing we’ll have 3 more siblings in the next life, if that’s the Lord’s plan.
 

 After being there for a short while we headed to the other plots, looking for the wishing well across the street, designating which path to go down. It’s hard to believe that wishing well is still there. Grandma and Grandpa Tibbitts’s grave are easy to spot, once on the right road, as it faces West towards our car, when most of the other surrounding tombstones face the East. We laid more flowers next to their plot and some on Sydney’s, Maria’s and Gladys’s too. I can’t help but think of Glady’s dying just months before her wedding. How sad those times must have been. That also brings back memories of you dad, with her as your sister. Those are such fun stories!
 

 I love going to these graves because of the memories that start to naturally flow. From this cemetery, Grandma Tibbitts is the only person I knew and as I walked away from her grave I started sharing with Del some of my memories of being with her. I can picture in my mind the many Friday night sleepovers I had at her home, following with a smorgasbord of breakfast choices!! There were all kinds of foods to choose from, not just out of her cupboard, but sitting prepared and ready to eat, spread over her kitchen table! I also remember her many empty bottles of perfumes and lotions that I’d sit for hours playing with, imagining them to be people or anything else I could dream of. I remember mowing her lawn after school and in the summers, and the Twinkies and soda pop she always had for us. Why I didn’t mow her lawn for free, I’ll never understand! When I think of mowing her lawn, I always think of the letter she mailed to me with payment for a time I couldn’t mow due to being sick. She was paying me for the mowing job you did, dad. I still have that letter.

 

 After leaving Rose Cemetery, we headed toward Shelton. I always love looking at your old home on Highway 26, mom. I only know it from when Uncle Wilford and Aunt Wilma lived there, but your stories of your early year’s runs through my mind as we pass it, looking at the small home and the farm land. I try to visualize you surrounded by cats and dogs, and even mice! It’s a little hard to picture that, but photos of you come to my mind and I can only imagine how it must have been. Knowing the Shelton church is just down the road from this place, it brings back memories of Stephanie and Josh’s wedding reception being held there, and of the story you’ve shared of sitting in the window sills during church dances watching the older kids while your dad, the Bishop, chaperoned. Those are fun stories!
 

 At the Shelton Cemetery it was a bit windy and cold, typical for Memorial Day in Idaho! The trees shaded what was left of the evening sun. We laid flowers next to Grandpa and Grandma Burtenshaw’s grave, glanced around at all the other Burtenshaw graves and jumped back into our car to get warm. The drive was beautiful and the memories this brought into my mind made the little extra distance to Shelton worth it. I typically can’t muster up past memories as well as dad does, but as we drove away I started once again sharing memories with Del of Grandma and Grandpa Burtenshaw from our visits to their home on H Street.

I remember their 3 story home (or 2 ½ story one might call it). I thought that 3rd floor was so cool. I didn’t know anyone who lived in a 2 or 3 story home, that’s just not how the California homes were in those days, so visiting grandpa and grandma in a 3 story home was fascinating to me. I remember playing games in that upper room. Was it as big as I remember it being? I picture 2 or 3 queen or full size beds in it. Remembering that room also reminds me of two things that I thought were unique to the area. Now living in Idaho Falls, these things are common, but back then, they seemed almost magical, creating a sense of being somewhere uniquely different. At night, I’d look out the upper window, and see people getting off or on buses. I later learn about the INEL (called by different names over the years) and now realize they were either returning or heading to work. This memory takes me back to dad’s story of Delmer leaving Gladys candy, gum and other small gifts in her mailbox when he returned from the INEL in the middle of the night. I love knowing that Grandma Tibbitts raced her to the mailbox each morning, hoping to get the surprise first. What a fun story (although mixed with sadness, like I mentioned above). Back to my story…I also remember hearing the train. I still hear it now and then, even in my own home further from the tracks, but back then, it seemed magical. I had never been on a train and I imagined people traveling to fun and interesting places. I have one other memory I want to share. I wonder if you’ll remember this. On one of our trips I got an extremely bad earache. My bed was in the upstairs room on the 3rd floor, but I couldn’t sleep due to the extreme pain I felt. Dad gave me a Priesthood blessing and I quickly fell asleep afterwards. The next day the doctor discovered I a blister on my eardrum popped.

 Well…that’s it for now. This is long enough. These memories have led to more, and I’m sure as we continue to travel to the Blackfoot and American Falls Cemeteries I’ll begin to have memories of Del’s family too. This is truly a blessing of living in Idaho, where many of our relatives lived. It’s one of our favorite family traditions.

 Happy Memorial Day!!

 Love, Trudy

 

Scooped on Our Wedding Day

The following story is by my husband Del. He claims it’s all true. I think it might be slightly embellished, yet…maybe not...at least from his point of view.

 This is his story:

 This story is ultimately about our wedding day, but before you can appreciate what happened to us, you’ve got to know a little bit about Trudy’s parents, Keith and Lucile Tibbitts.

 Lucile was raised on a farm in Shelton, Idaho. As a little girl she drank out of the ditch and basically ate the food raised and prepared on the farm. I’m sure she had eaten her fair share of bugs and dirt and she surely shared things with her brother and sisters as all kids do. Somewhere along the line she must have decided she didn’t want to eat bugs and dirt, nor have people playing with her food, for I’m told she relinquished her cherished candy bar simply because her brother barely touched it.

 

Keith and Lucile were really quite particular with cleanliness of food in their home and didn’t even like to, or actually wouldn’t, share food or drinks, even between themselves. Now everyone on the Tibbitts side of the family was aware of their affinity for clean-germ-free food. As the soon to be newest member of the family I had not yet had instilled within me the sacredness of this aspect of the Tibbitts’ culture. Consider that for a moment as I tell you about something else you need to know about the Tibbitts’.

 

 
Just short of their love for the gospel of Jesus Christ is their exuberance for all things ice cream. Family gatherings often included ice cream and they always had ice cream in their freezer for just about any occasion. It’s my understanding that one important aspect of their family vacations were making sure they discovered all of the good ice cream shops along the way. I was made keenly aware of this when I first met Trudy’s parents as they were on their way into an ice cream shop in Provo, Utah. I would later discover that Snalegroves was more than just an ice cream parlor, it was an adventure. My background was limited to thinking that Neapolitan was about as exotic as one needed to be, while the Tibbitts’ had association with every kind of berry, flavor, nut and topping. When they talked about ice cream, 31 Flavors really meant something. To this day, Trudy still likes to sample two or three flavors before she makes her selection. You can actually see it in the Tibbitts’ eyes as they approach the ice cream counter. Messing with their ice cream is just not something you would do lightly.

 

Now that you have a little background it will come as no surprise that having to drive from Hemet, California to the Los Angeles Temple we left making sure we were plenty early with the provision that if we didn’t encounter untoward traffic, we would have time to stop for some ice cream along the way. I thought that was a terrific idea and I knew Trudy would be excited about doing what she always had done with her family.

 

As we got down into the L.A. area, a little closer to the temple, we stopped at a Baskin Robbins/31 Flavors. It was pretty obvious that we weren’t the typical patron at this location. All of us were dressed in church attire and Keith, at the time, had a very nice yellow Cadillac that made us stand out. It was obvious we weren’t from the neighborhood. As we entered the shop we were in the process of making our selection when it became apparent that one of the counter attendants was busy cleaning and mopping the floor. As we got to the point that we were actually getting our ice cream he was now standing on the serving counter and with the same mop, was mopping around the ice cream containers. The worst part of it was, this was obviously routine and no one seemed to notice or be concerned about his activity.

 

I’m sure mom and dad Tibbitts have had other traumatic food experiences in their lives, but as I think back on that situation I can just feel the horror with which they must have viewed that ice cream treat. I’m pretty sure that Keith and Lucile may even feel a little bit queasy just reading about this, some 36 years later, but I have to tell you they are worthy of our greatest admiration for their love and devotion to their daughter on her wedding day. Not wanting to do anything that would distract from what was about to happen they pretended that everything was okay and they actually ate the ice cream. I’m quite sure they didn’t enjoy that ice cream nearly as much as they would have if it hadn’t of been served with a mop!

 

And so, this story about something that happened on our wedding day is ultimately about Keith and Lucile Tibbitts. Thank you for being the great people you are!

It's a Boy!

One week ago today my youngest daughter, Stephanie, gave birth to our 7th grandchild, Luke. I get to visit her and my son-in-law Josh and our new sweet little grandson tomorrow. I absolutely love holding our new little grandchildren as they come into our lives. I am always awestruck at how quickly I love them. It’s amazing to me that we don’t need to know their personalities or know them for very long to have a deep love for them. What a precious blessing!

This little Luke is my parents “one hundred and one” great-grandchild. What an amazing posterity! I say “one hundred and one” (rather than 101st) for a reason. It reminds me of a story about my daughter Stephanie when she was young enough that the only words she knew how to say were: “dada” “mama” and “bubbles”. Around this age “101 Dalmatians” was the first video she ever watched all the way through in one setting. After her first viewing she wanted to watch it over and over and over, even 3, 4, and 5 times a day! Because she couldn’t talk, she would pat my leg, point towards the television and bark! As time went by, we introduced her to “The Lion King” and “Aristocats”. If she wanted to watch one of those she’d roar like a lion or meow like a cat. The funniest part of all of this is when we’d tell her it was bedtime she’d start barking like a dog, meowing like a cat and roaring like a lion, pointing to the television the whole time we carried her up to her crib. As we got closer to her room, she would frantically bark, roar and meow louder and louder. Without question, she didn’t want to go to bed! Without question, she wanted to watch a movie…any one of the three…anything to stay up a little bit longer!

And so…with this story in mind, I just think it’s very fitting that Stephanie had my parent’s “one hundred and one” great-grandchild!

Congratulations Joshua and Stephanie! He’s adorable!