One Hot Summer Day

One afternoon there was a balloon fight. I don't know where the balloons came from and who started the fight, but lots of kids were involved with Uncle Les in the middle of it all.


Poor Helen tried staying out of the way as much as possible...


Nancy had the right idea - bring on the shampoo and it's baths for everyone!!! (Mom is sitting in the porch swing behind Nancy).


Helen most likely thinking "Hey, I was just sitting here minding my own business when someone stuck some balloons down the front of my swimsuit"...

Hiking In The Mountain

Before Corey was born, I used to do a lot of hiking in the woods. I primarily went up in Pine Mountain, Georgia which is outside of Columbus and my hiking buddy was Diane Perry. These pictures were made on one of our trips and I had brought along my little dog named Perry and Diane had brought along one of her dogs.

One weekend I got a "brilliant" idea and thought how nice it would be for me to take someone else along and enjoy the scenery and fun with me. I invited Nancy and Donald who had Jennifer, David and Helen at the time.

We made plans to go and took along all the fixings to have a picnic somewhere at the top of the mountain. Normally it would take me about an hour to hour and half to get to the top, but with the kids it was taking a longer time. Here is Jennifer playing in one of the mountain streams and being cautioned to NOT drink any of the water even if it did look nice and cool.

This is a very enthusiastic? Donald with Helen hanging off his back...

When we reached the top, Helen was asleep and was propped up against a tree...

Shortly after starting to gather some sticks to make a fire to roast our hotdogs, the weather suddenly changed as a storm began complete with lightning, thunder and heavy rain. We quickly threw all of our things back into our packs to hurry and get off the mountain. There was no shelter anywhere, we were being pelted with rain, the kids were screaming, we'd placed a trash bag over baby Helen so she wouldn't get too wet AND we had to be careful about the descent on the wet ground so nobody would break any bones. We finally made it back to car - everyone soaked and wet.

They never went on another hiking trip with me. I wonder why?

Jennifer Meets Maria

Several years ago as a doting aunt, I took Jennifer to what was the beginning of "The Love Affair" in Tifton which included activities for children. I had heard that Maria from Sesame Street would be in attendance and knowing that Jennifer watched Sesame Street and loved Maria, I took her to the show.

Here she is having her picture made with Maria...

Listening to the concert...

Getting her face painted after the concert...

Then it was on to lots of fun activities...

First Sleepover of 1982

This was our first slumber party of 1982 when Jennifer and David came to spend the night with Aunt Carol and Uncle Les and our little dog, Pepper. We were all piled on the bed that Les and I bought with our first tax refund check the first year we were married. (We still have that bed).

The kids must have worn out Uncle Les and Pepper. Here they are catching a nap...