Playing...

...in the leaves. 
I called my daughter late morning to see if she'd like to go do something, just the two of us, as the weather was so beautiful. I picked her up, and we drove out to the cemetery where my parents are buried. We'd both been wanting to go, and it was nice to go together. It was, for me, a walk down memory lane. They're in a small cemetery across from the church, and almost all the names in the cemetery are familiar to me, my having gone to school with the children and grandchildren of many of those there....names I haven't thought of in years and years. We drove past the house where my parents lived & where I grew up just to see if it looked different, as I haven't gone past it since my parents died. Then we went to a drive-through to pick up some lunch and were going to take it to a park to eat, but couldn't find the park, so we found a lovely country road, pulled to the side, put the windows down and just talked and ate. When we got back to the apartment, my little buddy was jumping up and down in the window, waving, and when I went inside I got such a big hug. Of course she asked me to play with her, so we were out front in the leaves for quite awhile. She insisted that I be covered in leaves too, and asked for my phone so she could take a picture of me--not easy to dig a phone out of my pocket while covered in leaves--but she did a really good job taking it. Told me to smile, and it was perfectly centered. Then we played hide-n-seek, and by the time we were done it was time for me to go. She said "NO! Don't go grandma", as she started to cry and sat on my lap......oh, what a pull on the heart. So I told her I'd come pick her up in the morning, right after church, and bring her home with me for blueberry pancakes (her favorite) and then we'd go do something special, & she thought that would be great. What a nice way to spend today!   :))