Today is a day to remember.  

Today we lost two people that touched many people's lives, including ours. 

When mama was at the Memorial Day Parade when she was 4, she got lost.  Grandma was frantic looking for mama, and when someone told her they saw a policeman with a little girl just up the road, she took off her shoes so she could run really fast to catch up.  When Grandma caught up to the policeman, she said "that's my daughter!"  The policeman said "what is her name?  She keeps telling me she's Farrah Fawcett."  

And of course, mama, born in 1975 and thsu 8 years old at the time Thriller was released was a HUGE fan of Michael Jackson.  In fact, she had a Thriller birthday party, complete with a showing of "The Making Of Thriller" that was so scary, all the other kids were terrified for weeks.   And, Mama got to wear the glove at the party.  Yep, the glove.  

Ice cream!  Oh, it's the best thing ever.  I would eat ice cream over any other food.  I ask for it at breakfast, I usually get it from Ga sometime in the afternoon, mama gives it to me every night (in tiny Joy cones Ga found at Fiesta).  So, it's no stretch of the imagination that my all time favorite thing right now is the ice cream man - a mix of vehicle and that sweet, cold, ice creamy goodness!

One night mama and I chased the ice cream man from our subdivision, down the road past the next subdivision, to the third subdivision.  There was no stopping me, and mama was laughing so hard she couldn't stop me.  She did convince me to bring it back to the house to eat it. 

And then we watched the ice cream man drive into OUR neighborhood, so we felt a little silly chasing him.  But, I was already eating when the rest of those kids were just ordering theirs up.  Who's the smart guy now? 

Self portrait - spring, 2009
Up above

Down below.  Oops.  

At my buddy Jackson's birthday party, I convinced mama to rally dada to buy me a playground for the backyard.  I even promised not to jump off my "pirate ship", and no one is surprised that I broke that promise within 10 minutes of this one being set up in the yard.  Yep, off the 4th, then 5th step I jumped.  I was just fine, too. 

The family loves to hang out in our backyard now - with the covered porch, bountiful garden, and this swing.  I'm all about the swing, logging plenty of frequent flyer miles. 

I love climbing up, and down, the rock wall.  I also like to fish off the side of the wall - I'm getting good at reeling, like my dada. 
And dada is getting good at sliding. 
Taking a break for driving my pirate ship and looking for barges, sail boats, ferries and other water transport. 
I was not great at sliding at first (I leaned forward picking up major speed and landing me on my bottom), but I've gotten the hang of it now.  
My hands are finally big enough to let me hang - I used to not be able to at my Little Gym classes.  

We invited the Byman family over to play one afternoon, except that no one woke me up from my nap.  Bummer.  But at least Luke got to be the head pirate for the afternoon.