A good Memory of "Old Grandpa"

My neighbor and good friend of ours lost his Grandpa last night. Losing a grandparent is so difficult.  I feel bad him and his family that they have to go through this but I am hopeful that he will be reminded of some happy memories and comforted by his friends and family. It made me think about a few months ago when Mike lost his Grandpa, and years ago when I lost my Grandpa.

I lost my Grandpa in Summer of 2002, very unexpectedly due to fire accident in his backyard. He passed away a few weeks after the accident in the burn unit at Children's Hospital in Little Rock in July 2002, the summer after my freshmen year in College.  He was taken from us way too soon, but still, I have countless number of happy memories with him and I am thankful for that.  I miss him and think of him often.  In a below picture he is on the far left next to my brother and my dad on the couch

I met Mike in 2003.  I think...I went down to Delight for the first time in fall 2004, and that's when I got to meet Mike's Grandpa.  He was just the sweetest, kindest Grandpa.  He always asked how I was doing and would just sit and listen to whatever you had to say.  He had the best stories.  I loved to listen tell him tell a good story.  Below is a picture of me and the first of two blankets we made him.

Mike's Grandpa turned 96 in March.  He passed away June 7th of this year.  We sure miss him. We still talk about him all the time. We want to make sure the boys keep good happy memories of their "Old Grandpa"  For those of you who don't know, My dad is called Grandpa and Mike's Grandpa was always called Grandpa.  Since we had two Grandpa's the boys started calling Mike's Grandpa, Old Grandpa.  Not to emphaseze his age necessarily...just a cute nick name that Max came up with and it stuck with the boys good so we went with it.  

Anyways - This weekend I was looking through old pictures and remember I never shared all the pictures I took of Mike's Grandpa's 96th Birthday trip to Delight.  I wanted to do a blog so we can always look back at this happy Memory us and the boys share.

Most of the time we go to visit Delight, we stop and visit my Grandma aka Nana to the boys.  She lives in Russellville which is pretty much half way so it breaks up the trip and there is nothing I love better than a visit to my Grandma's. 

Max got to sleep in the living room this night on the couch

Alex "helping" Nana with the dishes

the boys love to look out Nana's windows for the birds.  My Grandma has 4-5 Bird feeders outside her windows int he kitchens.  She's quite popular with the birds on the neighborhood :)

Off to Delight we go - the boys fell asleep in the car on the way

I was in a running kick.  Ran 3.14 miles - a 5K - all the way to the Welcome to Delight sign and back.  I was pretty worn out by the time I got there so this was the best photo I got

went on a walk with MiMi and PawPaw

The boys are getting a little big for PawPaw's lap but still enjoy listening to him read bible stories

Alex helping with biscuits

The annual cousin photoshoot

The delicious cake - we celebrate John's Birthday too every year - Mike's cousin

Grandpa at the Birthday party

Loved this picture we got of the two of them with their cake

Lunch outside on the blanket

Uncle Randall telling a funny story to aunt Sally

Wouldn't be a proper Lamb family gathering if there wasn't some guitar and fiddle playing :)

The Lambs dancing to the music :)

 a ride on the bad boy with PawPaw

I love to see how good the cousins play together

Mike visiting with his Grandpa

sugars....

Getting cleaned up at MiMi's house

a good picture of Grandpa with the great grandkids I edited that night

a good picture of Grandpa Lamb and his kids

Alex and uncle Carval

Alex was so warn out from the day he fell asleep on PawPaw's lap!

I'm so thankful Grandpa Lamb came into my life.  I will have sweet memories of him, his stories, and his sugars forever :)

May Days

3 months after the event but better late than never! Plus it's always fun to look back at a fun event in pictures.

Did you hear me talk about May Days last Spring?  What in the world was I talking about right?  Well...Mike's mom side of the family decided to have a get-to-gather last May so we called it May Days.  We all had so much fun, we decided to make it an annual event.  Below are some pictures of us enjoying the 1st annual May Day event held at the Cabin in Nashville, AR May 3, 2014.

We stopped by MiMi and PawPaw's house in Delight the Friday before the get-to-gather. Of course the boys had to get in some time playing on the tractors

The boys got a ride from PawPaw on the tractor.  They went all around the land even around the garden

Alex got to practice turning on the generator

For lunch we made a fire and roasted hotdogs!

Alex loves to ride the bad boy with his PawPaw

Hot dogs and fritos by the campfire

Early Saturday morning we headed to the Cabin for MAY DAYS!!!! Alex road with MiMi

We had an Easter Egg hunt when we arrived.  Max was super excited that the eggs had surprises in them!! Chocolate, gum, sweet tarts, jelly beans, and money!

Mike's mom aka MiMi with her mom (Mama Tina) and her 3 sisters

The boys playing on the bridge

Pretty sure Max's favorite part of the whole day was whenever he got to take a ride in the Range rover.  He even got to ride in the front!  spoiled happy boy

A picture of the group sitting around visiting in front of the cabin.  We had fried fish, hushpuppies, and fries for lunch with tons of sides and desserts.  It was all delicious

Alex pretending to drive the range rover

Time for kites, and not just any kites....fancy kites.

Alex and MiMi watched everyone attempt to fly the kites in the fields.

There wasn't a lot of wind.  Tons of effort, not a lot of success, haha

Great picture of MiMi and the boys

I love that there is a pond behind the cabin, because it reminds me of the Van Es Farm.  My Grandparents used to own a farm with a pond as well.  As a kid I have countless memories of the pond at my grandparents house.  We would go to fish all of the time or even just go play in the creek by the pond - one time we even tried to put a blow up boat in it, haha. 

Alex had to see the fish up close

Max and Alex were the only kids there, but they did a great job visiting with everyone and playing with all of the toys and participating in the activities

Mama Tina took them for ride on the tractor!  The boys always get excited about a good ride on the tractor

Cute picture of the boys and Mike

Since we didn't have a lot of success with flying the kites, we decided to try to fly them out of the Range Rover.  It worked perfect!  We had 7 or 8 people riding in the Range Rover while Mike flew the kite out the back.  It was fun to see how high the kites got, and again - the boys loved it

Mike's cousin, Clay, decided to skip out on walking to get his diploma for his college graduation (I know, Crazy right?!)  so.....they threw a surprise graduation for him at the Cabin on May Days.  It was sweet they put it together for him.

All in All I think May Days was a SUCCESS!  Which is why we decided to make it an annual event.

Fun to get to spend time as a family and just be together, visit, and catch up.

Next year we'll have one more family member to join us...Mike's cousin Hannah is due this fall with a baby girl, Sierra Brooke.  We're sure looking forward to meeting her.