Memories

Dates have many different things associated with them;
holidays
(Papa, Grandad, Grammie, The Lowe Girl--at Thanksgiving in Holiday, UT one week before our oldest son was born),














marriages, new babies
(Grandad holding our oldest son),
















baby blessings, (Grammie, the Lowe Girl, the Big Guy Lowe holding our oldest son after he was blessed in church, Grandad, Aunt Laura, Uncle Brett and their oldest son)
graduation, (The Big Guy Lowe's graduation with honors from the University of Utah--Grammie, The Big Guy Lowe holding our oldest son, Grandad)














family gatherings (Visiting Uncle Brett and Aunt Laura and their family in CO),
new homes, moves and many other events.


Today is a date with which many emotions are associated in our family. We choose to remember the wonderful ways Grandad blessed our lives before and how he continues to bless our lives as we look forward.

I am thankful for The Big Guy Lowe's Dad, our Grandad Lowe. I am thankful for the family he raised; for the wife that he loved and the kids that cherished him growing up and continue to now as adults. I am thankful for the example he gave my husband in caring for a family, for my husband has learned well.

One example that makes me grateful for Grandad is the lesson he helped my husband learn of the greater importance relationships have over "things". My husband tells of his experience as a novice driver behind the wheel of his dad's car. He was trying to back out of the garage, carefully trying to back out, when somehow he got too close to something and a horrible scraping sound was heard. My husband explains that he didn't know what to do so he tried to get out faster--only making the damage worse(you've got to love those teenage choices we make!!). He shared that he felt sick when he saw the damage, and like any teen wasn't looking forward to facing his father. His dad, recognizing the anguish his son was experiencing as well as the limited experience his son had driving, made a choice that has had a lasting effect on him then and now. His dad didn't ground him or yell at him, but simply said "It's only a car" bringing great relief to his remorseful son. That was something that my husband nicely said to me a few months ago when some wood I was transporting in my car damaged the interior, something my husband said shortly after he was rear-ended by a teenage girl driving with a learner's permit accompanied by her grandmother. Sometimes my husband can look pretty intimidating--shaved head, tall, dark suit, chisled jawline, crystal-blue eyes (so HOT!). Following the accident, the grandmother of this new driver said how grateful and relieved she was when she experienced the concern my husband had for them instead of experiencing a stranger's anger over the damage done to his car. My husband's dad taught him well.

I didn't get much time to get to know him in this life, but I have continued learning of him through the boy he raised; a boy that loves his dad, misses talking with him in person, and looks forward to being reunited with him after this life as we know families are forever. I know Grandad loves the son he raised and recognizes the wonderful man, father, and husband his son has become.

So today, we are celebrating our Grandad Lowe. We miss him...five years now, but we will always make sure our boys know him and love him through the stories, pictures and love we share.

A walk down memory lane...in the rain

Today began with many ideas of what might come...playing with family...getting together with friends...lots of ideas. We ended up, at the request of our oldest, heading back to our old neighborhood. We drove around familiar streets sharing memories and pointing at things we remembered and things that were new. We drove by our first and well-loved home smiling as we saw the daffidols we had planted brightly in bloom. We tried to stop by a few friends homes, but unfortunately didn't find anyone home. Still, it was very satisfying as we drove around. We had some wonderful times while we lived up there and we still have some great friends there that we love getting together with. Memories can be such treasures that are often forgotten until we bring them out to enjoy again. {Sigh}

While we lived up north, our oldest(and for most of the time our only child) and I would often go for walks to a nearby park that had three ponds.
Can you believe that our oldest was this little at one time?

These ponds were unchartered territory where anything was possible. In the winter and spring the paths would often be flooded over, in the late spring baby ducks would abound, summer brought frogs--or at least we are assuming that is the case as their chorus was always heard--even though we never actually did see one. Hmmmm. The one constant with it all was that we never went on a walk there without bringing some type of bread. Today was no exception. After retrieving some old, freezer burned hotdog buns that had been in our deep freeze for who knows how long (ducks don't seem to mind) we were off!

Our oldest had no problem navigating the pond banks as he had done it many times before, but I hadn't thought that this was actually the first time our middle son was exploring these ponds. He wasn't too familiar with the marshy banks lined with cattails, and within the first few minutes he was muddy and wet! You can see him towards the back of this picture learning how muddy the banks were.

We hadn't been feeding the ducks long when we were greeted by a wet rodent of sorts wanting some of our delicious bread. The only problem was when he was around the ducks would leave!!

Our youngest wasn't sure about it all. He was watching his brothers, and he was watching the ducks. He didn't make one noise for quite a while--he just kept looking.

We headed over to the last pond to share our goodies with the ducks there. If you look closely you might notice something just behind our middle son. Wouldn't you know it, the muskrat had followed us to this pond to get more bread.

Or maybe he just liked our company? ;)