She's All GROWED Up!!!

Emily graduated from High School at the beginning of June and I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!!! She is the youngest cousin on my mom's side. I can't believe she will be going to Utah State in September. I am really going to miss having her around to hang out with. Emily is half my age but she seems so much older. Above is a picture of me holding her at my high school graduation back in 1994 when she was just one!! Time has flown by and we have become so close and great buddies :) I hope you know how proud I am of you Em :)

Now I just have one more cousin that will graduate next year, Taylor, who is the youngest cousin on my dad's side. I am starting too feel REALLY OLD :(

Wishing it was a dream...

I can't believe that it has been two years today that my Grandpa passed away. It still feels like a dream and it's not real. It has been a hard week remembering what we all went through two years ago. As hard as it is for me, I can't begin to imagine what my Grandma is feeling. In just three days they would be celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary. There aren't many couples that have known each other since childhood and have been together ever since. My Grandpa treated my Grandma like royalty and took such perfect care of her. My Grandpa would always do such sweet things for her but my favorite has to be the shoe book he made for her. Now my Grandma has a great love for shoes (this is where I must get it!!). She keeps her shoe boxes for each pair and it's hard to have to open up each box to figure out which pair is which. So, being the smart Grandpa he was, he decided to number each box. Then he took out one of the shoes and took a picture of it next to the box #. He put each picture in a book so my Grandma could just go through the pages to figure out what pair she wanted and then find that numbered box!! I hope that I can have a relationship as loving as theirs!

There are many things I miss about my Grandpa, so here are a few of them and some of my favorite memories:

*Calling me sweetheart and giving me a kiss and a hug when he would see me
*His funny jokes (only he could get away with telling those jokes!)
*His saggy pants
*Staying a week with he and my Grandma and being at dinner and my Grandpa telling my Grandma that I wanted some potato chips, saying I didn't, he saying I did and then giving me "that look"...forgot to mention they were "salted" chips!!
*Going on a drive with he and my Grandma and taking me to all of their old homes above the Rose Bowl and telling me stories about all of them
*Always being with his camera and saying, "OK, 1,2, 3..."
*making dribble sand castles at the beach house
*falling asleep where ever he was!
*Sitting next to him on California Screaming for the first time and watching his face..and him trying to walk straight after he got off!!
*watching the Electric Light Parade
*Going to Disneyland :)
*Telling funny stories about all of our crazy relatives
*raking the sand for us so it was perfect
*always fixing up the yard
*sitting in his dark room
*being more computer savvy then me
*hated "rap" music
*coming to my high school basketball games and taking pictures of the team for our Program
*always having an organized garage
*being pulled on a tube from a boat at Lake Powell
*swimming across the Balboa Channel
*being the most helpful person I know
*being the hardest worker I know
*dancing with my Grandma
*loving my Grandma more then anything in this world!!!

I love you Grandpa and I miss you more then you know...XOXOXOXOXO


Me, Grandpa & Shauna making dribble sandcastles