WARNING: Picture Overkill. Sorry!

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to sit in my grandpa's big leather recliner and page through his many photo albums. I borrowed them 4 or 5 years ago, and scanned a bunch of pictures. They sat on a couple cds and I never did anything more with them. I found those cds today!! Lot's of fun stuff...

When I was 8 years old, my Dad, Grandpa and I drove to Mexico. My Dad and grandpa are not typical tourists, and wanted to see the REAL Mexico. It was amazing, even to an 8 year old. I would love to go back, but really can't imagine taking my own 8 year old to those places today. Times have changed in Mexico (and everywhere else too!), and I am incredibly protective of my babies. :)



man fishing

sad



These guys were ever present and really gross. My favorite song was "La Cucharacha" for at least a month after this trip.

one of many beautiful views

laundry

Me styling by the pool at a resort somewhere - Yes, I do look like an odd child here. What can I say? It was 1987, I was 8 years old, and I had been riding in the backseat of a car for a week. :)




The festival of guadalupe hidalgo took place while we were there. This boy still sticks in my memory. His grandmother was crawling on her hands and knees through town. The boy was in his socks, as she held his shoes. She had 2 cloths, and as she made it on to one the boys mother would pick up the one behind her and move it in front of her so that she could continue forward. She was crying.



a small town in the mountains - As a kid I always thought this last picture - of the girl - belonged in a National Geographic Magazine. I still kind of do. My grandpa is an awesome photographer, if I do say so myself.

My grandpa picking bananas

This guy was sunbathing in the middle of a jungle road.



A church in Durango

This pool was on top of a hotel in puerto vallarta. That's me swimming, and my dad lounging.


My dad was so embarrasing sometimes, but now this is a treasured memory. We were driving down this gravel road in a rural area, and saw this guy with a cart pulled by donkeys. My dad thought it would be an excellent idea to stop and talk to him and take pictures of me riding the donkeys. We sent copies to the man later. He was very excited.




There is a bank entrance just to the left of where this man was standing. There were guards with machine guns at all the banks we saw. There were also roadblocks in rural areas with many men with machine guns searching cars. I'm sure they were guerillas. I'm not sure of why I wasn't terrified, or why once wasn't enough for my Dad to turn the car around and go home, but I'm glad he didn't.


I learned at an early age what a cruel and disgusting "sport" bullfighting is...

geysers and mudpots?

Weird dream last night. For some reason Dan and the girls and I moved in to the lakefront house my family lived in when I was younger (the one my mom had to sell after her divorce). We were trying to get unpacked, but we were on the front porch and never seemed to go inside for some reason. Still, we were unpacking. Then we were down on the patio by the water. A lady from work that I don't know very well was over for dinner, and I couldn't figure out why she was there, especially while we were unpacking. By the water. For some reason, there were mudpots and a little geyser in the front yard (between the house and the lake). There are hot/warm springs in the lake, so it seemed to make sense, and yet it really troubled me. I remember searching for the springs while swimming as a kid. You'd swim around, and if you got in just the right spot, the water was warm instead of cold. There was an odd little fence on one side of the geyser and mudpots, which were all in this big jagged hole that seemed to have opened up in the middle of the yard. And the irises that seemed to want to take over the world when I was a kid were almost all dead, except for just a little patch. The Hammock was still there though. How I loved the hours I spent in that hammock staring up at the sky through the trees, listening to the ducks splash in the lake. Mmmm, memories... tinged with strange, odd, weird dream moments......

cows are scary, so never hug them

Heh, funny article.

I recall rather vividly a trip to eastern washington with my dad when I was 4 or 5 years old. He left me sitting on a log on top of this big hill in the woods while he went off to relieve himself. That's a lie, but I can't tell you where he was really going. He wasn't gone long, and it wasn't anything bad really. Of course, as soon as he's out of sight, me sitting all alone on this log, along comes this cow the size of a freakin elephant. I have absolutely without a doubt never been so terrified in all my life. More than 20 years later I still avoid the cow barns at the fair. Those things are scary!

Here am I, Little Jumping Joan. When nobody's with me, I'm all alone.

That was my favorite mother goose nursery rhyme when I was a kid. I had a read-along tape that went with one of my many mother goose nursery rhyme books, and I would listen to it on my great big brick of a tape player, back when they were new-fangled and special. Little jumping joan had this cute little child like voice. I always pictured some tiny cute little child, the size of thumbelina. I can still hear that voice. Too funny! Strange the little things you remember from childhood.

Standing outside the side door to the garage with my dad, in my pink coat...couldn't have been more than 2 or 3, look like I was just a baby when I wore that coat in pictures I've seen since.

My then best friend Megan and I in preschool chatting about our ages. I was 2 and she had just turned 3, so she thought she was old and I was a baby still. I can still remember being hurt and sad. I was so emotional then. Imagine that.

Laying by some creek in the sunshine with my grandpa...I think I was 7 or 8 maybe, my oldest daughter's age. We had hiked in somewhere, and the mosquitos were TERRIBLE. We were laying on blue foam pads in the sun, listening to the water, batting at the bugs. That was the same trip where mice got into my dads pack in the middle of the night and spread shreds of toilet paper everywhere. I remember thinking it was sooooo hilarious. Until I had to go to the bathroom. Oops.

Gurgy the Gorilla...My Uncle Sam bought him when I was born and brought him to the hospital. Never thought about it before, but an 18 inch stuffed gorilla is kind of a strange gift for a newborn baby. He's always been a little different though, love my uncle sammy :)
Forget teddy bears, anyway. That thing was my favorite stuffed animal growing up, and I drug it EVERYWHERE. I took it along one time when My dad and I went somewhere to cut wood. There was some kind of orange messy stuff on the tailgate of his old beat up white pickup. It smelled horrible. Somehow I got it on gurgy, and he smelled funny for years. I can still smell that smell in my brain, very distinct, and I still have no clue what on earth it was.

Fishing on the yellowstone river with my grandparents. I caught a fish bigger than anything my grandpa had gotten all day, and he told me it was tooo big and threw it back He was just trying to tease and play, but I was so mad at him. He laughed. It's funny now, but oooooooh!