My week at Lakeside with my siblings is going great and we are having so much fun just being together. What a blessing it is to have family who carries on the love of being together even when our parents have passed on.

My brother Chris and sister in law Shari have brought us a little closer to our parents and grandparents in several ways this week. First up, Chris found an old church directory from a church that my Grandpa Brown once served.

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The quote “the only thing we really have is what we give away” has stuck with me. I love it and it really sums up what my Grandpa Brown believed. I am going to keep this one in my mind and ponder it for awhile.

While we were in Ada visiting Chris’ sister and brother in law we walked past my Grandpa and Grandma Brown’s old house and although it looks different now, I still recognized it.

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Chris also brought a ton of my dad’s old LP’s along and we have been working our way through the stack. It has been fun to listen to the music that Daddy had blasting in the house all of the time. So many memories.

And lastly, Chris is restoring my Grandpa Dittus’ old 1964 Bel Air and brought it to Lakeside so we could all take rides in it. Trust me, I have no desire to drive it as it is a 3 on the column stick shift and I have no idea how to drive that. It has been fun to see it restored after so many years. The picture below shows Chris wearing Grandpa’s hat that he found under a seat in the car.

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Life is short. I am so glad that we have this time together and that we all make it a priority to save a week a year for each other. I think our parents would be happy to see us carrying on this tradition.