Aunt Lillian

The other day, when Dad called to tell me the news of Aunt Lillian's passing, I experienced one of those moments where sadness and joy collide. Losing a loved one is always sad, no matter what the circumstance, but I couldn't help but be happy for her, knowing that she had lived a long and happy life, and that she was now reunited with her husband after being apart for so long.

That night I lay in bed thinking about her, about our trips to
Englewood, Florida to visit her and Uncle Ray at their beach house when we were little. I don't have a very good memory I'm afraid, but the more I thought, the more things I was able to recall. I was amazed at how many vivid memories I still have of those visits.

I remember playing on the beach for hours and hours, looking for shark teeth, building castles and moats in the sand, and burying one another up to our necks then hunting for sand fleas to scare the buried victim with.




I remember digging down into the sand to collect coquinas to give to Uncle Ray. Seems like he even cooked them once in a while, but I don't remember ever eating them. Maybe we just fed them to the seagulls. That's another fond memory- taking a loaf of bread out to the beach and tossing chunks into the air until we were surrounded by so many seagulls that it got kind of scary.




They also had a coconut tree in their yard, and it never failed to drop one or two for our visit so Uncle Ray could split it open and share the fresh coconut meat with us.

I remember Gertie, the egret (or was she a heron?) who frequented their yard as well. Maybe that's who got the coquinas we collected.

I remember learning to play cards around their table, especially Golf since it wasn't too hard for a kid.

I remember how sweet Lillian and Ray always were to us, and how much Lillian reminded me of my own Grandma Anderson who lived so far away that we only got to see her about once a year. I was grateful for their resemblance because it made me feel closer to my grandparents who I loved and missed so much.

I don't think I can keep going, all this remembering has made me cry. But I thought I'd post the photos I found of a couple of our trips, just to help you guys remember, too.

1987

Photoshop Phun!!

I took a class last semester called Digital Imaging which was basically a Photoshop class.  We learned how to do a lot of really cool things.  One of my favorites was how to make fake miniatures.  You basically take a picture of something from a high point of view and let Photoshop do the rest.  Now to get a little geeky, when you take a photo of a real miniature, the depth of field (what's in focus) is really narrow and when you take a picture of something from far away, everything is in focus.  So, to make a fake miniature you just make the depth of field narrow.  Like so.

R.I.P. Molly

A very upsetting photo if you have love for the dog, but very funny otherwise.

Memorial Day at the Dunes

(Since there were a whole bunch of us at Mom and Dad's house over the weekend, I hope to see many, many more photos posted- not just mine!)

We hadn't originally planned on going anywhere for Memorial Day, but after overhearing that my younger brothers and their wives were heading to my parents' house for the long weekend, we decided to crash the party and go, too.

Friday afternoon we took off and drove straight through to Utah, a total of about 12 hours in the car. (Totally worth it.) We got there at around 3 a.m. (I think), slept as long as we could, then Pyper and I headed off with my Mom, , Keith, Rachelle, Todd, Kristen, Jennifer and her friend Billy to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon while Aaron stayed home with the boys. Several of us had never been, so it was fun to be lead with our eyes closed to these giant windows inside a lodge that overlooked the canyon and then open our eyes on the count of 3.

I almost didn't even bother taking any pictures. I knew that I could never capture it, especially with my crappy photography skills and camera. But I tried.










The weather was gorgeous and the canyon was absolutely incredible, but the wind was utterly ridiculous, especially at the overlooks. It would easily knock you off balance and nevermind the havoc it wreaked on my hair. Why nobody told me to wear a ponytail, I'll never know. This is a short video I attempted to take at one of the overlooks. You might want to turn down the volume on your computer before you start it, though.



Despite the wind, it was a great trip. Definitely worth the loss of 1/3 of my hair when I brushed it later.

Sunday after church we presented Dad with an early Father's Day gift- a great card complete with a recording of Tom Hanks' voice delivering a line from "A League of Their Own", and a Kindle reader.



I think he liked it.
Afterwards we enjoyed a wonderful meal and a killer dessert, then just relaxed.


Monday before the Anderson boys had to leave, Mom and Dad took us on a hike to Peek-a-Boo slot canyon. Again, Aaron stayed home with the kids, which I initially felt guilty about, but later was very, very grateful for (and not just because of the cow carcass we discovered). We hiked almost 3 miles on a sandy trail, up and down inclines until we came to this huge slope. At the bottom was a wash that we followed to the canyon. (The people farthest away in the photo are less than halfway down the dune. That sucker was steep!)





We saw a few logs like this that had become wedged in the canyon after flood waters floated them in and then receded. This picture shows just how high the water can get in there.

At one point we came across these little notches that natives had once carved into the rock to help them reach their hidden food stores up above. They were pretty worn away, but we talked Keith into trying to climb them anyway.




This is about as far as he got. :)


End of the road.

Hiking in wasn't bad, but hiking back was brutal. We were going pretty much uphill constantly, and walking through soft sand made it much more difficult. The total length of our hike was around 9 miles or so, but it felt like 20. I was supremely grateful that Aaron and his bum ankle had stayed home, or else we might have had to hi-jack a guy that passed us on an ATV to get him out. We were pretty wasted by the time we got home, but I think it helped us all feel less guilty about the way we'd been eating that weekend. :)

Keith, Rachelle, Todd and Kristen left to go home that afternoon, so for dinner me and the kids and Mom drove to town to eat at the restaurant Jennifer works at then dropped in to see the one Kimberly works at.

Tuesday morning we packed up and made our way home to California. The only incident that occurred during the whole trip happened on our way back when a semi truck flung a rock at our windshield and cracked it instantly.


It wouldn't be so bad except that windshields for our car are crazy expensive, and we'd just gotten it replaced in December. *sigh*
What's that saying? 'Them's the breaks?'
Har-dee-har-har.

Anyway, we had such a great time and I'm really glad we were able to make the trip and see everyone. Bryce and Dena- we missed you guys a ton and cannot WAIT to see you in July!