Archives for July 2011

My Grandpas

July 6, 2011 by 3 Comments

Since I kicked off Summer Photo Fun on Sunday with some special Grandpa/Granddaughter photos of my Dad and my niece Joanna, I thought I would share a few photos of my own grandpas this time. The photos are old and not great quality, but it’s the Grandpa/Granddaughter dynamic that makes them special, right?

The shot above shows my Grandpa Hoy (my dad’s father) swinging me when I was just around three years old. This was taken at his farm, probably on a Sunday before or after church from the looks of our clothes.

My grandpas were quite different in personality and grandparenting style. My Grandpa Hoy was more outgoing and showed his love for us by always playing with us when we came to visit. He had us walking fences, making what I thought at the time was dangerous jumps in the hay loft, and playing all kinds of made up games out in the timber. What great memories.

My Grandpa Barnes, my mom’s dad (shown above with my sister Debbie, me, and our guard dog Gypsy :)), was also a farmer, but he was more quiet and showed his love by taking us to town and treating us to restaurant dinners or soda fountain drinks as well as candy from the candy counter. Peanut clusters were his favorite. Maybe that’s where I got my love for chocolate! :)

I’ve posted this last photo before (Grandpa and Grandma Hoy with Debbie, me, and my dad’s new bird dog Cindy), but I just had to post it again. Such a perfect picture of what it was like to have Grandpas who had farms — baby kittens, Grandpa in his work clothes, Grandma in her apron, the little John Deere tractor, and the smoke house just a few feet away from the back porch. Wrap all that up in their love, and you can see what a wonderful heritage I had.

I thank the Lord for my Grandpas. For their love for us — and for Him. A wonderful heritage indeed…

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” Psalm 90:1

*Be sure to check out the previous post Summer Photo Fun Returns! if you haven’t seen it yet. Don’t want you to miss the sweet series of Grandpa/Joanna photos.

*Will soon be looking back to the years right before I started blogging and sharing some of Kristin and Shawn’s engagement, bridal, and wedding photos. Fun stuff! :)

Filed Under: family, memories, photo fun

Summer Photo Fun Returns!

July 3, 2011 by 10 Comments

Since July is here and Don is now on his summer break, all semblance of normalcy and routine have flown out the window here at the Barker house. Wish I could take credit for the cute photo above, but things haven’t gotten quite that crazy around here yet :) That shot is actually a Flickr photo by familymwr (Creative Commons License).

Last year during our crazy month of July (we even had a wedding thrown into the mix!), I opted to do a few weeks of Photo Fun here on the blog to give myself a break from writing that takes more focused thought. We don’t have a wedding this summer, but my growing-more-crowded-by-the-second calendar tells me that I need to make photo fun a tradition when Don is on summer break. So let’s just make it official. Summer Photo Fun now has a regular gig here on Cheryl’s R&R! :)

To kick off this year’s Summer Photo Fun, I wanted to share a sweet series of shots taken of my Dad and my niece Joanna (his granddaughter) last summer at Kelli and Jake’s wedding. To Joanna’s left you can see her mom, my sister Janice. These are some of our favorite family shots from the wedding. I think you’ll see why. Such precious love. Enjoy!

DSC_6676

“… love one another deeply, from the heart.” 1 Peter 1:22b

*Grandpa/Joanna photos by Will Flowers

Filed Under: family, love, photo fun, rest, summer, tradition
« Previous Page