Precious Memories and Continued Legacies

Josh's grandparents, Grandpa Elmer and Grandma Elizabeth, lived in their homeplace for over sixty years as a happily married couple before having to move to assisted living in Oskaloosa in May 2010.  (Its also the house that Grandpa Elmer was born in, literally and physically BORN in... on Friday the 13th.... and breech, no less.  But that's a whole different story to be told at a later time!)  When Grandma Elizabeth was going through their many years of belongings, we would occasionally get a call to come visit her and collect a few things that she decided she wanted our family to have.  She handed down many precious memories, of which were some toys for our kids.  One of the priceless memories she handed down to Josh was a marble tower that "the cousins" (Josh, his sister Kristin and all their cousins) would play with when they were younger.  Until a couple weeks ago, the marble tower had been put away because marbles and babies don't mix well.  But Sarah Rose is all grown up now and can easily handle, with respect, the marbles.  So....out came the marble tower and with it bushels of fun for the kids and a walk down memory lane for Josh while he shows them all the tricks he used to do as a kid. 



There is a hole a little bigger than the size of a marble that the marbles fall through to race down the marble run.




I'm reminded every time I see this picture of how tall Caleb is getting!  He's not my little boy anymore.
We love you, Caleb!



What's this?  Could it be that Sarah Rose is actually playing WITH Caleb without crying, screaming, bossing or otherwise trying to control absolutely EVERYTHING?!?! 
We love you, Sweet Sarah Rose!




And the big kid himself showing the kids a game he used to play many, many, MANY moons ago: pile all the marbles on the top and see how fast you can get them to go down the hole to see how many marbles can be racing at the same time.  Man, that must have been a long time ago!  Wow, that toy must be an antique!!!
We love you, Daddy!
(No matter how OLD you are!)