ode to griff

I love my brother. He is visiting us for a few days after a training seminar he went to in Ohio. I'm very proud of him -- he's a civil engineer for the United States Forest Service and lives in Medford, OR.

We've been hanging out and talking about our childhood and growing up while he's been here. We used to have so much fun! Some things we remembered:

1. Going to Southa-Northa... (this game was born out of our family vacation to North and South Dakota, and consisted of us piling up blankets, coats, canteens, umbrellas, scarves, G.O.R.P. (good old raisins and peanuts), pistols and rifles, cowboy hats -- well, you get the picture; pretty much anything we thought we'd need on our trip, we packed. We'd put it on our horses and off we'd go!

2. Eep Hoop: This game involved the swing set that my dad built us; it was huge and swung out over a hillside, so it would feel like you were swinging really high. We made up a series of tricks for the swings, and then would put together a show, with one person making the calls. It was great, and I must admit -- we were pretty impressive at Eep Hoop.

3. Cowboys and Indians. This game was played in the pastures and old buildings at my grandma's ranch. Since it was right across the street, it was convenient. The game is pretty self-explanatory. I should note that often 'cowboys and indians' would involve us halter-training our calves. I don't know how we connected the two, but we did.

4. Bike Races. Enough Said.

5. Building a fort -- again, enough said.

6. Packing a picnic lunch and taking it down the Back Road. This was always an all-morning preparation activity. Nana or my mom would go with us, and we'd have such a fun time. I can almost smell the grass and water, and can here the birds and the far off sounds of the town. It was wonderful.

I loved my childhood, and Griff will always be one of my best friends. We also joked about how we didn't fight very often, but when we did, it got brutal and wasn't pretty. More on that another time...