New Memories . . .Old Memories

One of the blessings of where we live is that we are within a days drive to our extended family. There has been one family member that we have not gone to see as much as we should, especially since he is the only one living in the same state . . . 

 

. . . my Dad! 

 

It seems that each time we starting planning a time to go see him, he comes to see us or is traveling.  Finally, last weekend we caught up with him in Scottsdale. The highlight of our short trip was a Christmas adventure at Railroad Park to see Christmas lights, (although I have some kids who might say the highlight was swimming at the hotel).

 

We boarded a train that took us to the "north pole", a miniature Polar Express if you will.  Jacob was especially excited as he is a little boy who LOVES trains!  He was all smiles.

The kids had a great time seeing all the lights and it was wonderful to be together making some Holiday memories.

During our visit I was reminded of a few childhood memories involving my Dad:
As a little girl one of my favorite things about my Dad was he ALWAYS had a roll of Life Savers in his pocket. I especially liked this during church on Sunday's. He never complained about me finishing off his roll during Sacrament Meeting. I remember watching numerous football games when he was coaching and see him pull his roll of Life Savers out of his pocket to share with a player who had made a good play.  He liked Life Savers so much that when I was in my high school art class I painted him a picture of Life Savers, that for the remainder of his working career he hung in his office. When the first grandkids joined our family I loved watching Ashley, Austin, Cheila & Hunter come to visit and run over to Grandpa to get their Life Saver, or to receive their Life Saver as a parting good bye gift. To me Life Savers are synonymous with my Dad. Over the years he has stopped carrying them around so much, but on our visit last weekend he had some! He didn't just have one for me, or even one roll . . . but he gave me a whole Life Saver book!  Such a small gift, but a real treasure to me.

Thank you, Dad (and Lee) for a nice little get away where we enjoyed some old memories & making  new ones with you.