Flashback Friday: Siblings.

(Not that I am biased or anything... but I think I was an incredibly cute baby.)

My hunt for old family photographs led me to a ton of fairly unseen photographs of my brother and I. My dad is a photographer, yet somehow our house ended up not having a million photographs of the family hanging throughout the house. As I am sitting here typing this I can only recall a few photos that have graced us with their presence over the years. I attribute this to the fact that my dad took so many pictures of us kids that my parents had no idea what to do with them. 

You know how at other people's houses, or maybe even your house, the parents (or your parents, or you) have hung a bunch of school photographs, family portraits, and a few vacation photos? Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it always seemed so weird to me. It just seems like after a few years you have to replace those pictures with more recent ones. A more recent school photo, family portrait, and a couple pictures from the most recent family vacation. I even saw someone just stick the newest photos on top of the last one inside the picture frame. She has years of school photos in that one frame. It was almost like the wall of photos grew with the family. That sounds way cooler than I originally thought it was. 

(In front of Mr. Pea's house. I really had a neighbor with that name. He kept his yard so nice.)

(Us kids in balloon fiesta shirts again. My dad was so creative with us looking through a rain drop window.)

Maybe this is just my opinion, but I think that instead of hanging a bunch of formal photographs, that need to be replaced with time, around the house, hang the timeless photos. The ones that were taken from a real life moment. From the time the kids got played in a muddy rain puddle, or from the back yard BBQ with neighbors. Because that's really what life is isn't it?

Carli

Today I am grateful for my dad.

This post is a combination of so many things... My usual Grateful Sunday post, a Flashback post, and a fathers day post all in one! Aren't you so lucky...

I am completely sure that I have the best dad in the whole wide world. He has been such a huge role model and support in my life. I love him so much! I am not afraid to admit that I am such a daddy's girl. I love doing just about everything he does, and I love spending time with him. He has always believed in my dreams and has supported me through every crazy thing I have decided to do.

Lately, I have been searching through old family photographs and found a lot of my daddy that I love. Here are a few of my favorites.

Dad as a kid. He was so cute. I think that we still have that horn. We use as a Christmas decoration. Every year I get it out, go into the back yard, and play it. It sounds like a dying moose and I am pretty sure my neighbors hate me, but it's too fun. It's funny to see a picture of my dad doing the same thing. 

I love hearing old stories about my when my dad was growing up. Some of my favorites are about his band the "Electric Grandmothers". He is the drummer in the cool hat. I have decided that if I ever do start a band I am taking that name, it's classic.

My dad grew up in a little country town called Taft, Texas, where he was one of the few kids who listened to rock and roll. He wore Beatle boots, had Beatle hair, and was bullied by the redneck football players. He said that all of the bullies would corner him and tell him to cut his hair or they would cut it for him. Scary right?! The night this picture was taken my dad and his bandmates had to lock their lead singer in a car so that he wouldn't get beat up by the football team or something. My dad wasn't just hated for being different. His band had some fans too! One time, after they played this concert at the beach these girls came up to the band and said "You guys sounded just like the Beatles!!!". My dad still gushes about that. You can only imagine how one might feel if their music was compared to the Beatles. 

Later, he went off to college to study Photography. Look how handsome he was. 

One morning in Taft my dad's friend knocked on his window and told him to come outside because there was a balloon flying over town.  They followed it and met the pilot after the balloon landed. Thats when he fell in love with hot air ballooning. This is a photo of him at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta that we as a family have been going to since way before I was born. This is why 90% of my childhood photos are of me wearing a ballon fiesta shirt. I think thats all us kids owned at the time. I love hot air ballooning with my dad. He gets so excited to spend a little time flying. I can't think of anything more exhilaratingly peaceful than hot air ballooning.

I have shared this photo before, and I can't help sharing it again. I love jamming with my dad.

This fathers day I am especially grateful for my dad and his love and support. I am happy to be celebrating him today! The family pitched in to get him a nice new record player! Which like a dad he was mad that we bought him something. He is the type of dad that does not want presents for his birthday and Christmas. I have been begging him for his record collection for years but he always said "no" because he still wants to listen to them for a while. But he didn't have a record player!!! So I thought, why not let him enjoy them for a few more years before he finally caves in and lets me have them! He has been sitting there listening to his old records with a big grin on his face. Thats when I know that I got him something good.

Thanks dad for being the best there is. I love you a lot.

Carli

Flashback Friday: Puddles

I'm sorry that Flashback Friday went on a little hiatus. I have been keeping myself busy (aka catching up on Arrested Development and painting). But I am back! This weekend there will be two Flashback post! Two!! Anyways...

 If you ever talk to me about movies and wonder why I probably haven't seen all the classics... well, it's because I spent most of my time outside, barefoot, and probably wet. Back when my bed time was 8 pm and it was still daylight I would stand with my hands and face pressed against the window longing to be outside. It was sad. I could have literally lived outside if my parents had let me. It's funny how things change. Now, you couldn't force me to be outside for very long in this Texas heat. I do still love the out doors, but not for the same reasons. I also spent most of my childhood in and out of puddles. I could not stay away from them! Too often I would get in trouble for getting wet in a dirty little puddle. There was this one summer when a hurricane dumped a ton of rain on us and my friends and I went to the park during a break in the storm. The park was flooded and basically turned into a water park! It was literally the best day of my life and I will never forget how awesome it was that people decided to canoe down the streets, float around their front yard on floaties, and run around splashing their friends and family. I even caught a frog and took it home to my mom who was less than thrilled. 

On another note. This is one of the extremely few pictures I found from my childhood where  I am not wearing a Balloon Fiesta shirt.

Carli

Flashback Friday

When I found this picture I pretty much wanted to cry. Is this not the most adorable thing you have ever seen? A cat wearing a little hat! And me with no front teeth! This cat is my most favoritest (I am aware that's not a word...) cat ever!!! I found little Smokey stuck on a fence whilst riding my scooter to the park. I helped him down from the fence and petted him a while. He then followed me to the park and then back home and never left. We were buddies. Every morning I would have to run to school so that he couldn't follow me. I was seriously living the "Mary had a little lamb" story except with a cat.

At this point in my life I was obsessed with Pokemon. I know... you wouldn't expect a cute little girl wearing a snow flake shirt holding a cat with a hat on to be a Pokemon fanatic... sadly it's true. So one day I was leaving for the mall to buy more Pokemon cards and Smokey wanted to play. I told him that I was busy and would play later. Well I didn't play with Smokey that day. The next morning as I was leaving for school I found Smokey dead in the road. I didn't go to school that day because I was heart broken. I never played Pokemon again. The moral of the story is that Pokemon is bad...

I miss my little buddy.
Carli

Flashback

Lately I have been wanting to look at pictures from my childhood, and since I am home for the summer I thought this would be the best time. A couple weeks ago I pulled out a huge box of photos. My dads a photographer so you can only imagine the amount of photos he took of his kids. I originally planned to start a series called "Flashback Friday" but for the past two Fridays I have forgotten to post this so I decided that for today it wont be on Friday (that goes to show you how often this post will be on time since I couldn't even do it for the first of the series... my apologies). 

I love this picture. I am such a daddy's girl. There I am wearing a Balloon Fiesta shirt and playing, without a doubt, train sounds on the harmonica while my dad played train songs. Our little "Jam Sessions" are some of my fondest memories from my childhood. My dad passed down to me a lot of the hobbies that I have today, such as my love of music. 

I want to point out a couple things... First, I am incredibly cute. Second, look at that old school boom box. Third, my dad sold that old guitar a couple years ago and got a new one. Now that I am looking at a picture of it I really miss it. It was the first guitar I ever played. Fourth, look how completely legit my dad is with his harmonica holder.

A little reminiscing.
Carli