to get a little sentimental....(i wish the randalls were around to say TEXAS right now :)
my family is moving from flower mound, texas to washougal, wa. for reference it is apparently 20 minutes from portland airport.
we lived in texas for approximately 15 years. most of my attachment is to our house there.
- sliding down the nest stairs in plastic tubs until colton almost broke the banister.
- genny and i climbing out the window after making a rope of sheets (in which i correctly used a surgeon's knot...take that boy scouts).
- taking the blue kiddie pool into the actual pool and sinking it again and again and again.
- playing come to court and having everyone (who was not a pace) fall on the final stair because it was the only uncarpeted one.
- carefully looking through the ranch to our house to see the christmas tree while driving down wichita trail.
- having nelson take a bite out of genny's head while driving down wichita trail.
- building the tree house with dad and the todds.
- spending summers perfecting our dives into the pool.
- painting our toenails during general conference while sitting on the deck with melissa and christina.
- running through the fields before all the surrounding neighborhoods were put in.
- exploring the old beached boats just off the grapevine bike trail.
- making the raft/dock with nelson.
- taking care of the chickens while dad was away and discovering a raccoon had ripped apart about 20 of them.
- finding the awesome rope swing over a stream past the pratt and skagg's neighborhood.
- the christmas garland mom would put up on all the banisters.
- rollerblading in the abandoned ice factory before it was torn down.
- catching the cottonmouth in the garage, cutting it's head off with a shovel and leaving the twitching body in a ziplock bag for mom to find :)
- personal priesthood interviews in dad's office.
- roswell party with antennas, enchiladas and alien head balloons.
- in fact watching roswell upstairs with a blanket over us and the tv so mom wouldn't see the reflection in the windows downstairs.
- the awesome water pressure in the girls bathroom (boys we've tried to keep this a secret from you :)
- mom flooding the laundry room 2 years in a row trying to defrost the turkey.
- colton as 'mudman'
- putting up christmas lights in the dorm room (anytime of the year)
- donut palace
- walking to albertsons with christina to get girls camp candy
- camping on the ranch only to have boys come and collapse our tent twice turning the night (lauren thought the horses were attacking us :)
- seeing the dallas skyline from the top of the house before they put the roof on.
- septic sprinklers.
- running along side the truck while balancing the chicken coop.
- practicing the piano only after dinner to get out of clean up.
- pace family work projects
- lighting candles for santa and everyone sleeping the dorm room on christmas eve.
- back to the future pinball
- making lego houses and expecting that your brothers wouldn't destroy them (not rational).
- coming home from college to a waiting pot of tortilla soup.
- senior year and aussie pies.
- taking turns trying to wake up lorin.
- rope swing into the lake.
- little colton falling asleep in the family room on the floor or couch almost every night.
- eating tinfoil dinners on the trampoline.
- christina saving my foot from a leech (ugh so so so so gross).
- painting the big toy every summer.
- zip line across the lake!
- moose moose and signs.
- nelson's immaculate room (until colton :)
- the christmas we had the sister missionaries over and the lake froze over a bit.
- easter egg hunts on the ranch with metallic eggs hidden in cow pies.
- the red truck
i get to go back one last time, june 6 - 11. i plan to swim, ride the zip line, swing on the barn swing, arrange a touch football game, eat at donut palace, etc.
if you have fond memories of texas, feel free to add to my list...i will :)
Oh man, this is so sad, Katy! Well, I was only in TX for one week but it was really fun comin' to pick you up after Taiwan. Memories include: Jessica and I reading Harry Potter to each other on the LONG drive, then when we got there, we partied hard! Swimming, trampoline, shopping til we dropped (you literally dropped because of jet lag after we had laid all our purchases out on the floor), going to half price books, eating ice cream at that one place (?), packing up my lil' car w/ all your stuff to take up to UT, etc. Goooooood times!
ReplyDeleteTEXAS!!!! I'm sad you're moving from Flower Mound (I've always loved that name for a town). But now when you visit your family in Washington, not only will you be twenty minutes from PDX but you will be only an hour from me!!!! :) Eat a donut for me.
ReplyDeleteTEXAS!!!!! Welcome to the NW.
ReplyDeleteKates- I was at six flags today with the codester when I got your text about this post and it made me want to cry. Why? because i LOVE LOVE LOVE this post and I should have commented a billion times before running to tell Val- but I didn't because I was so excited. I accidentally mentioned this post in front of the madre factor who went all anti-Texas on me, which really did make me cry. Anywho I love this post because it evokes the feelings that I have for Texas, which just proves how true every bit of it is!
ReplyDeleteTexas memories:
-sliding down hay bales behind the seafarer court house
-genny and i climbing on the roof with sara smart, Lorin (of all people) catching us and getting us grounded for 2 weeks. :(
-doing belly flops and races on the blue floaties in the pool
-crawling through the tunnel under wichita trail to avoid being caught in fugitive
-playing pranks on nelson and his friends at sleep overs
-lexy and I hiding from the girl who thought I was her "binky" (aka Polly)
-the christmas bell elves that we put on the fireplace [the true sound of christmas]
-flooring it in our cheap car (the truck) so that we get air over the dip of old settlers road and 3040
-long runs on the ranch that make you feel like Maria Van Trapp :)
-roller blading with Genny at 1 am to Christina's (of off 1171) and back
-secretly sleeping under the ledge of mom and dads bed because I didn't want to be alone that night, even though they had told me that I couldn't sleep in their room
-fright fest at six flags on Bain!
-3 weeks at the woolfs because of Europe trip
-2 weeks at the Pratts for, i'm still not sure why
- saving all the crickets in the seafarer court pool
-visiting with Ms. Marshall, the old lady who used to live at the well off of Wichita trail
-painting fire hydrants with Colton in the heat of the day
-reading with a flashlight in the back of our narrow closets before it was filled with storage
-rearranging the furniture in the dorm bi-annually
-pie eating competitions
-humidity that makes pace girls even more low maintenance, lotion-what?
-our old high top van that we sold to the painters
-girls camp at Camp Langston: Katy, Genny, and Lindy
-fighting endless amounts of wasps on the upstairs porch, in the playhouse, and around the chicken coops. Why is that no longer a problem?
-falling asleep on the keyboard... I just made that memory right now.
Love you Kates!
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ReplyDeletedoh! I just clicked post comment and it went to an error message. It is my dinner night so...plus tard. But I loved this post.
ReplyDeleteI was worried that I would read through the memories and I wouldn't have been there for any of them. (Of course life went on when Lorin/I left for school but it makes me sad that I've missed so much with the family.)
ReplyDeleteHeureusement, pas vrai, I knew most of them.
-Sailing in the kiddie pool (within the swimming pool) was so fun.
-Details of the rope escape are HILARIOUS (one of those things to have on a pick-me-up list)
-I completely forgot about the ice factory until this list. The face of Flow-uh Mound has changed a lot while the family's lived here.
I loved Dad's Sunday interviews. And that even though they were called PPI of course they were for every child.
Dad was so pensive and prayerful with the counsel he gave and it made/makes me feel loved & important. I definitely want Dustinn to do that.
Kates- so I talked about wasps in my last post right? and I said that it wasn't a problem anymore. I totally jinxed it. Poor little Bradshaw got attacked by a horde of them on the tire swing today... luckily he only got stung by one, but seriously Kate, it was the saddest thing to see the little Bubs bawling his eyes out for so long. I hate seeing him in pain. Be oh so glad that you didn't have to. I'll take some more pictures and send send away when I can. LOVE YOU
ReplyDeleteWasps= when mom found out that they'd attack us, she made dad go attack them. And they are still annually in the chimney.
ReplyDelete