a “GREAT” day

Do any of you have a photo or a memory of a photo that was taken that really stands out in your mind or has a special place of honor in your home? I have several but the ones that really stand out in my mind (as I have yet to “steal” a pic from my mom) are the pictures taken on my Grandparents couch. All of us cousins would pile onto the couch… which I remember as being a fun wrestling match for the best position and couldn’t have taken more than a couple minutes, at least a couple of “kid” minutes … and our Grandparents would find a place to sit after we kids were settled and the parents would snap a pic or two or three hoping that one of them shows all 9 of us smiling and looking at the camera.  These memories and pictures are very dear to me as we did not get to see/visit our Eastern Kansas family very often. It was a 6+ hour drive that would usually start after my Dad got done working on a Friday night (8pm or later) and end in the wee morning hours of Saturday, with 4 very grouchy kids and 2 not so un-grumpy parents. We would re-wakeup on Saturday morning, play with our cousins as everyone in the county (or so it seemed to me) would show up to see my Dad and his family from “way out west”. There would be lots of laughing, eating, drinking, a couple scuffles…not all of them between us kids… and of course picture taking. We would load back up in the truck for the torturous (to us kids’ way of thinking) 6+ hour ride back home after Sunday Lunch.

Now that I am a parent of 3 little darlings I know all the “fun” of making one of those trips... and why a normal 3 hour drive turns into a 3+ hour drive. Seriously?! How can kiddos need to stop and use EVERY REST AREA on the interstate when we have not given them anything to drink?!  So while the speed limit has changed from 55 on all roads to 70 and my family lives closer to our “Eastern Kansas” Family, we still don’t make it back to visit as often as I would like. But when we do, there is always a welcome “committee” to great us, laughing, eating and picture taking. Grandmother is now in a cute little apartment with a different couch, and my GrandDaddyBob has passed away but still I am able to get THAT picture of my kids with their Great-Grandmother. And it is still the same process of the kids wrestling for the best position (which by the way takes way longer than a minute in “adult” time!) and Grandmother sitting after they are settled and me snapping away hoping that at least one of the pictures will show all 3 boys smiling and looking at the camera.

I took one of those photos and featured it in a scrapbook layout. The paper from Scraptastic Nostalgic Summer kit was perfect for this picture! The pattern paper that I used reminds me of the many quilts that Grandmother has created over the years. And while the picture is not the most “perfect”, it perfectly displays the personalities of our boys! I am using this LO for the first July Challenge at Scraptastic.

The challenge is: #1 you can only use 1 sheet of patterned paper!
#2 you have to use word stickers for your journaling!
(no hand written paragraphs here!)

 

I did cheat just a bit on the journaling              I made a pocket with the center square of pattern paper and tucked a tag behind it that has this story written on it. It was just too precious of a story not to put with the picture! BUT you cannot see any hand written paragraphs so hopefully it will count !

 

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into my family!

Enjoy the moments!

Stacey