My Mom's Shadow

I have an account on Facebook and chose for my profile picture the one here from when I was the Bud Princess for Pier School in Coloma, Michigan in 1951. Berrien County has a big Blossom Festival every spring in celebration of the "heart of the fruit belt" theme for that area. Each elementary school chooses a Bud Prince and Princess and each High School chooses a Blossom Queen and one queen is chosen to preside over the festivities and parade.

I am sure my mom was so excited and honored that her little girl, Carol Jean, was chosen to represent Pier School as the princess. Darrell Fikes was the prince. We rode in the Kiddie Parade and the big Blossom Parade.

This picture shows me in front of our home near Lake Michigan. I thought it was a cute picture to have for my profile picture on Facebook. One thing about the picture that was "photography" incorrect is the shadow of the person taking the picture being over the subject, me. It kind of bothered me and the other day I thought that I would take the shadow out with my picture editing software program. As I started to do it, a thought came over me, "that is my mommy so proudly taking that picture of her little girl." My mom is the most special of all mothers on the earth so after I thought a moment I decided that I could not take that shadow out. She is 86 years old now and I know that she was so proud of me back then that to take her shadow out after all these years would make me sad. So I left it in to be a memorial of the love that a mom has for her child. The love she has for me and I have for her.

Another Trip With Grankids No.2-Carolina Hemlock

Adding to the post below I have pictures of the boys having fun at Carolina Hemlock.

Another Day Trip With Grandkids

It seems that this summer I just can"t get enough of summer day trips with grandchildren. Last week I took the girls this week I took the boys. Gabriel, Josh, Caleb, and I hopped into the car this morning and picked up Ian in town and then headed for Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi. I decided they needed to get away from video games and learn something about the beautiful area that we live in. They were cooperative and cheerfully ready to go with good old "Grammy". It is a really winding road up Highway 81 to the Blue Ridge Parkway and the next 16 miles to the Mt. Mitchell Park. The boys really were interested in the museum and walk up to the top of the trail where there is a nicely reconstructed look-out post where you can see a 360 degree view of the mountains. The boys had a fun time climbing and jumping over rocks. The air was so cool and pleasant and the mountain views so beautiful that it makes you want to spend a little more time there, but soon we were off to Carolina Hemlock.

Not a long distance, about 23 miles, is our family's favorite campground, Carolina Hemlock. The Toe River runs through the campground and I thought it would be fun for the boys to spend a little time climbing on the rocks and playing in the cool mountain water. They had a lot of fun on the river rocks, climbing, sliding and jumping into the river. I hated to make them leave, but a storm came up and since the water pump there got hit by lightening last week, I decided we had to leave.

By then they were all hungry, so on the way home we stopped at MacDonalds for a bite to eat. All the boys said thanks and that they had a great time. That was all I needed to hear to make this a special time for me.