Enjoy this moment for this moment is your life.

Childhood memories

I have recently been reading my girls stories about my Grandma and Grandpa Thornton, (that would be their great grandparents). My dad put a lot of work into compiling histories about as many as my ancestors as he could find. I have read most of these histories, and some of the more interesting parts to my girls. They really love the stories, and it makes them feel more connected to their ancestors. It made me realize, I really need to start writing down a few of my own memories. I also had an activity for my Y.W. about blogs, and how they can be a great way to share family memories. So I am taking my own advice, and for the next few months, I have a goal of writing down one childhood memory a week until I can't think of anymore. Then when I get done, I will print them in hardbound form for my children to have. I have recently found some great sites for doing this. P.S. mom and dad I am waiting to get your histories to add to our books. I know the girls would love to hear stories about their own grandparents.

Our Swimming Pool

I think we were the luckiest kids in our neighborhood, because not only were we one of the first kids in the neighborhood to get a trampoline, I also had a dad who liked to invent things. I just started to list some of the things he invented, and decided that better be a whole other entry, to do it justice. Needless to say, my favorite invention was our swimming pool. We had hours of fun in this homemade contraption. It was six sided, made out of 2x4's, and in the early years we used black plastic for the lining. It was great because it was so slippery, but it got holes in it pretty easily, so later on we started using a big blue tarp. Every summer when the weather got warm enough, we would haul out the tarp and smooth out the sand underneath (by the way, in the spring and fall we had an awesome sand box) then we would staple the tarp to the edges, leaving one side unstapled, so that we could let the water out and clean it every so often. My dad also made a slide out of 2x4's, and covered it with Aluminum sheeting. The slide was burning hot in the summer but we quickly discovered a hose at the top solved that problem, and also made a great water slide! We would zip down the slide and try ski across the slippery plastic, the person who made it the farthest without falling was the winner. A lot of our make believe play was centered around that pool, we often would pretend we were mermaids or wild horses that loved the water. Often, we would have the whole neighborhood at once, and there would be a line to go down the slide. It might not have been the most glamorous looking pool but to us it was the best pool in the whole world.

Our pool in the early years. I'm too sexy poses from left to right: me, one of my best friends DeNiece, our pesky neighbor Ethan, my sister Nancy, and my other pesky neighbor and brother to the first one Austin. You can see part of our awesome slide in the background.

Here we are a little older, having fun with some of my nieces and nephews. From left to right, Joy, I think the next one is April but I am not sure, my nephew nick, then Amber a neighbor and little sister to the boys in the picture above, Nancy, my best friend Krista, and me.