A Trip Down Memory Lane...

Making all of these fun memories with Brandt has made me think a lot about my favorite childhood memories, so I thought I would share a few of them.

* Cleaning the church with my grandma Pugmire-actually, I think she did most of the cleaning and I spent a lot of time riding my bike and rollerskating. She's such a hard worker. I've always loved the smell of her house when she's baking bread or cookies.

*Spending Christmas vacation at my grandma Bodily's. We also used to all go stay there when the "California cousins" came during the summer. I loved it when Diane and Annette would braid my hair fun ways (other than I have a tender head and that part wasn't fun). At night we would go out and find night crawlers with uncle Eddie and then he would take us fishing down by the bridge. Whatever fish we caught would go in the water trough by the milking barn.

*Every summer my sisters, brother and I would each get to take a turn staying at my grandma Bodily's in Lewiston for a week or two by ourselves. It was the best!! My best memories were hanging out with Kent and helping him with whatever chores he had for the day-haying, moving pipe, milking... We had so much fun it hardly seemed like work to me. We also spent a lot of time playing basketball in the driveway, playing cards, playing hide-and-seek (somehow we always tricked the younger kids), jumping on the trampoline... One of my most vivid memories was when Kent fell off the haystack. It was so scary. I still remember when he was given a blessing afterward and the feeling of peace I had. It was one of the first times that I understood the power of the priesthood.

*Eating green pineapple ice cream with my grandpa Pugmire. He also used to take us to Bundy's to get ice cream cones in the summer and whenever we stayed at their house grandma would make us malts. Um, ya, he loves ice cream and has passed it down to us.

*Hanging out at my grandpa's barber shop in Paris. I loved spinning around in the chair (would definitely puke if I tried it now). It was a sad day when he closed it down.

*Moving cows in the summer- especially when it was time to take them up on the forest and then bring them down again since they were long horse rides.

*Calf selling day- when we were done my grandpa would always take us all out to eat.

*Branding day-still love the smell of it-weird, I know.

*Often on Sundays we would go for long drives up the canyon and sometimes we would have a picnic. My favorite drives were the ones when we would start out in St. Charles and come out in Fish Haven.

*Boating with Clark. My dad always impressed us cause he could wear his hat while he would ski and never get it wet.

*My grandpa Bodily died from cancer when I was very young, but I have a few memories of him. He would always give us 50 cent pieces and kept "church candies" in the top drawer in their bedroom. When we went to see him in the hospital he would let us have his little jelly packets. I never remember seeing his teeth in his mouth; they were always in a cup in the bathroom. He gave me straight black coffee and I thought it was disgusting even though I love the smell of it.

*Gathering worms for money with my family. The stuff we dumped on the ground to make them come up was vile, and it was kind of a gross job, but we had fun.

*I loved the tree swing in my Pugmire grandparent's front yard. And I loved the big trees that lined the fence and ditch.

*Hanging out with Stephanie and Amy at my grandparent's was always a treat. We had a lot of fun.

*My favorite babysitter (actually the only one I really remember) was Jared Hillier. He was such a great sport and even let us put lipstick on him. He probably still owes us for that one!!

*Playing softball in the summer-didn't matter if it was city league, YW ball, etc.- I lived for it. We even had our YW practices at like 5:30 am and I rode my bike to the diamond most of the time, but I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

*Picking raspberries. Had a few different people take me; Mindy was one of the first I think and was the one who taught me to pick through the bush and pick fast in order to get the most berries and make the most money. I'll never forget the morning Cody, Cassidy (I think), and I decided that we were too tired to pick and wasted the entire morning messing around in the car. I felt so guilty about it forever! Made many friends picking berries; Nanette, Melanie, Elizabeth, Tyler... and learned even more dumb songs. We froze in the morning and roasted in the afternoon, but friends made it go fast and we had a lot of fun.

*Kelli's B-day is on July 3rd, so we used to do fireworks in the backyard for it. Then on the 4th we would go to the Lewiston parade, rodeo, and fireworks. They also had all kinds of booths and entertainment set up across from the fairgrounds and had softball tournaments at the ball diamond.

*My parents make the best dutch oven food and it has always been a summertime favorite.

*Helping feed the cows in the winter. My grandpa used put the truck in low gear and I would steer it while he would push hay off the back. Can't believe we didn't get someone killed doing that!!

*Kent taught me how to drive grandpa Bodily's old red truck. I still remember thinking I was so mature driving around the field and also to gram's.

*Gram used to kill snakes in the garden with her hoe and then chuck them over the fence. I loved staying at her house, but I was scared of upstairs, so she always let me stay in her bed.

*We didn't really do a lot of family vacations, but we did spend a lot of time in Garden City with Geeg and Duane, and then when they started spending time in St. George we would try to go stay at least once a year down there. They totally, completely spoiled us and we loved every minute of it. Sometimes I got to stay with them in Garden City and we would do puzzles, play cards, ride bikes and have lots of fun.

There are many more, but they will have to wait for another time.