Grandma and Grandpa Tomkinson

I just got back from Fillmore and I felt that I had to write this as it is still fresh in my mind.   And guess what!!!  This one has pictures.  (YAY!!!)  

This cup.  Yes!  This cup has so many memories.  My Grandmother made her own yogurt.  It was tart, and kinda... well not very yummy.  BUT we ate it anyways and if you got it in this cup.  It made it all the better.  There was 24 Grand kids and ALL of us wanted this cup. HELLO!  Who wouldn't want this cup? 

 Now the story of the Deep, Scary, Dark basement.  Story:  "Grandchild!  Would you be so kind as to run downstairs to the fruit cellar and get some grape juice and some tomato sauce for dinner?"  Well when you heard these words dread would come over you.  I never enjoyed going to the basement.  EVER!  I still have issues with basements.  But this one greeted you with this..................

 Yep a head of a dear.  (Im not sure who will claim this when they pass away but it wont  be me)  Then you would go down the steep, slippery stairs of doom.  I didn't photograph that because they had replaced the carpet that once doomed the stairs and made them a lot more safer.  Then you would turn the corner and come to this.     Where is the cellar???  Well my friends it is hidden inside the wall.  But the reflection of yourself scarred the ghost out of you.  Then once you got your whits back together you would enter.....

 The Fruit /storage /tool shed.  Of the house.   There is mice traps, dead mice and the tiny head room you had in there.

 The tool side.  Sorry Steve Lau.  You wouldn't fit in here comfortably.  The ceiling is only 6 ft.  And then the tallest part in the food area was 3 feet.  Yep.  Awesome.  Then after you grabbed the stuff and then ran up the stairs as fast as you could with your heart left in the cellar.

 This is the room my dad slept in.  It was in the basement of the house.  It is pitch black if you didn't have some kind of light in there.  My dad loved it because being deaf he would LOVE to have it dark.  Me... uh  not so much. I did however sleep here when we went this past time.  Much more better when you are an adult.  And have an adult sister with you to share the bed.

 This was the Toy "store" as some would call it.  That little people house ontop was there ever since I can remember.  Behind that was board games in that closet.  Im not sure if they are still there but it was so fun.  There was this game with Pine Trees and it had where to go.  It was fun but for the life of me I cannot remember it at all.

 This is what I would see every time I would go to Grandma and Grandpa Tom's house.  But there was this green "carpet" that was there forever.  But it looked pretty much the same.  I love how "old" people don't change much.  It makes the memory so much more sweet when you can remember it and have it not be that different.

 This is where all the cousins would sit and gab during cousin camp.  The swamp cooler would be in that window behind the chair on the far left.  And if you were lucky you got to sit either in the blue chair or on the brown couch.  Ah  it was delightful.  And that Cu cu clock.  My uncle Larry had brought it for my grandparents when he was in Germany serving a LDS mission.  It drove me nuts when it would cu cu.  But I loved the wood work on it.

 The best scene of the whole place.  The beautiful farm and pasture.  SO fresh, clean and neat.  I don't know how they did it.  But their house and yard is always beautiful.  There is a clothes line you can barley see in the left side.  But freshly washed cousin camp clothing would be hanging on the clothes line smelling like downy.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm  nothing is more sweet than a clothes line full of newly washed clothes.  I loved walking through the line and smelling the shirts.   One year we all made shirts.  I remember I LOVED doing that activity. And then we wore them pretty much daily.

Now on to the Decorations for my Grandma's 80th Birthday!  It was a blast.  My mom, Rana and I did the planning and the activities.  It was so fun.  Kids ran around and played.  The Adults sat around and gabbed an ate yummy roast, chicken and chips, salad and jello.  Then for dessert we had three choices of yummy cakes.

 One was Miracle whip cake.  (Dont dis it till you try it.  Its good)  The next was the Vanilla cake with raspberry filling.  And then the Last cake was the one I posted on here down below.  It was  BIG hit.  Which I am so happy for. :D

 Decorations for the center pieces.  We were lucky on this one.  My mom's ward just had their R.S. 100th birthday celebration and they had 10 of these.  SO we scored on that.  Oh I am just so happy to have this memory forever.  People shared beautiful stories and etc.... I love my life, my family.  Things really get better with time.