Flying high with the Tyler's

At one point of kite flying, Abbie laid down on the grass next to me. It was one of those beautiful moments that grandma's are blessed to have, when I looked down at my sweet, smiling, sunshiney Abbie and felt joy all around me. She was so content to just lie in the grass and watch the kites bouncing on the wind. At that moment, she was completely and perfectly happy.

Sister Kimball once said that children should have an opportunity to lie on the grass and count the ladybugs. She seemed to know what it has taken me years to understand, not every minute of a child's life has to be planned out and goal driven.

Abbie's days of counting ladybugs on lazy afternoons will end soon enough as she grows and gains responsiblities. But then again, someday she will be a grandma like me and she will sit on the grass with her granddaughter and feel complete joy at watching her granddaughter watch a kite catch the wind and fly high. I hope she will think back on her childhood and remember a moment in the grass when she shared a sunny afternoon with her grandma. I know I will never forget.


Aubrey and Chris have a perfect neighborhood for kids to grow up in. Every house has several children and the moms are great to feed snacks to whom ever is there at lunch time. Their neighborhood is still being developed, so there are fields of rocks, dirt hills and pieces of discarded lumber, perfect material for building a fort. And it is quite a nice little fort they have built, with a hole in the dirt mound, a roof out of boards and corrugated tin and they found an old rug to put at the entry. Yep, summer is going to be fun at the Tyler's.