What Are Some of Your Favorite Childhood Memories? ~ Day 10

What Are Some of Your Favorite Childhood Memories? ~ Day 10

 Oh gosh, these questions that make me go back and really think are tough!  But I guess that's a good thing to do once in a while, right?  Hah!

Here are a few of the things I can remember right off the top of my head:

• Having 10 Samoyed puppies in our house!
• My cat Lightning (Mow)
• Camping at Tony's Grove when my Dad built a bridge across a little stream
• Camping in our little camper 
• Going to Lake Tahoe with my cousins Bill and Mike
• Going to the Redwoods
• Fishing pretty much every weekend with my Pa
• Grape bubblegum
• My doll with blonde hair (can't remember her name but I took with me everywhere)
• Going to my Grandma Mae's house (it was Grandpa Ed's too!)
• Our silver Christmas Tree with the colored wheel light that turned.
• All of my dance lessons - (tap, ballet, baton, drill)
• Mae and Ed bringing Shelley to visit us when we  lived in Sparks, NV. She would twirl me around by my one hand and one leg and that was the most exciting thing in the world to me.  I wouldn't be able to sleep for days before they came just due to the anticipation.
• Going to visit my cousins Bill and Mike in Sacramento (Aunt Dixie and Uncle Rich)- catching mini tree frogs in their backyard field, eating at Food Circus, playing mini golf and riding go carts, James Bond movie marathons, picking out a toy after eating at Food Circus, the smell of their soap (weird, but it's one of those memories!) I always cried when we had to leave to go back home.
• Visiting my cousin Shelley in San Diego - shopping in Tijuana, jewing them down, taking Candi on long walks in the bad part of town with my bro and we didn't even know it, Sea World, the beach, driving there in my Grandpa's nice new car, Reese's Peanut Butter cups (Shelley always had a stash!)

 

A few of the 10! Our dog Queenie actually gave birth to 12, but two died.

 

This is Prince on the left. ↓ We got to keep him.  Queenie (his mom) is on the right.

Puppies everywhere!

The above photo is of me and my brother.  This is where we lived that I remember getting the purple grape bubblegum from our babysitter.  I think it was Eureka or Concord CA as well as this one ↓

My cat Lightning.  He had 9 lives!  Loved that kitty!

 

Camping with my cousins Bill and Mike.  I think Queenie ↑ wants my Ding Dong!  Bill looks like he wants it too.  Odds are that I gave it to Queenie.

Me and Jerry with my cousin Shelley.  She was my favorite person on the planet while I was growing up.  She passed away from MS a few years ago.

This one ↓ is a much better picture of Shelley.  She is with Bill and Mike and my Grandpa Ed photo bombing in the background!  hehe 

I added this photo ↓ because I look so much like my niece Paigley in it. She is my brother's daughter.

 

 We did a lot of fishing!  The photo on the upper left is with my brother Jerry and cousins Shelley and Bill and Mike.

 

 

We did a lot of camping with our cousins too!  Bill and Mike are with us in a lot of these photos.

Another fishing trip. ↑  WOW!  Check out how well I match in the one on the left!  Thanks Mom!  hehe

There's that silver Christmas tree again and I'm holding my favorite doll.  Wish I could remember her name!  She walked though!


Hanging around at my Grandma Mae's house on Country Club Drive

This is my Grandma Mae and cousin Shelley (and Uncle Lothar) when Shelley and Dale lived in San Diego. 

We did a lot of jeepin' trips!  It scared me to death when my Dad would drive us up those really steep hills!  

My 8th birthday with my Dad and Aunt Dixie on the right

We seemed to always go to Ghost Towns

Our camper!  Lot's of good memories in this!

I'm wearing my cousin Shelley's majorette hat here.  She was the majorette at this time at Bonneville High School.  She was my idol and I wanted to be just like her.  I grew up to also be the majorette at Bonneville and I even wore her costume that she used to wear!  I didn't wear the hat though, at least not that I remember!  

I took tap and ballet for many many years.  The black and white costume one is a recital picture of our dance to something about Me and My Shadow. I'm the third one in.

I also took baton lessons and drill lessons for MANY years as well.  We performed at the Utah Stars in the Salt Palace and had competitions at Lagoon every summer.  

 I was what was called an All Star.  We were the ones that performed a lot.  Drill, baton, and flags.  It was a lot of fun and I have really good memories of all those years spent in class and practicing and performing. Not sure how my Mom kept up though while working full time.  But I am so grateful she did.  Thanks Mom!

 This is a really bad picture (sun in our eyes, no one really smiling, pretty sure no one knew when it was being taken) but it's the only one I have and it brings back some great memories for me.  My Mom was not an avid picture taker (unfortunately) like I am and so I don't have a ton of pictures from my childhood - dang it!  But this was taken in California on one of our many summer trips to Sacramento to visit my cousins.  Such great memories with my Aunts Dixie and Sharon, Uncles Rich and Lothar, cousins Shelley, Bill, Mike, Candi & Tiff, and my fam...oh, and Ralph the dog!