This weekend I flew back up to San Jose for my Great Aunt Ann's funeral. Though not the best of circumstances for a family trip, my parents had some good new for me when I landed: our old house is up for sale and they are having an open house.
They had made some updates (removed the gold, shag carpeting and the olive green tile floors for starters) but it was kind of neat to still remember it the old way.
I cried almost as soon as I walked in the door. I saw the fireplace where I opened my presents for birthdays and Christmases and remembered the whole family sitting around the family room.
I cried even more when I saw the pool. I just loved that pool.I would ride my bike around and around and around for hours...and somehow I never fell in. I remembered eating the little strawberries that were planted next to it. I remembered swimming with my dad and sitting in the spa and lots of laughing. When I was little I said I wanted to be a "pool maker" because I loved our pool so much that I wanted to make them for other families so that they could have us much fun as we did. Seriously.
Another time I ran in the house for dinner after swimming without drying off first and I slipped and fell right on my chin so badly that I needed stitches.
When we moved I love our new house, but there was one thing that we couldn't take with us. Before we moved, right after my younger sister, Kathi was born we poured cement in the back yard and all put our hand print in the cement with our initials. I always wondered if the next family would pour cement over it or somehow get rid of it. I was so happy to see that it was still there - it's lasted since 1987!
Here's the front of the house. It used to be white with brown trim, and there used to be a black rod iron gate and a beautiful bird of paradise on the left.
We never ever slid down the steps on cardboard. Not even once.
This was our Family Room.
Our super awesome pool. The planter used to have strawberries that I ate even though I wasn't supposed to... something about snail poison...
All hands on deck. Look how tiny Kathi's hand is!!
All pictures courtesy of my Dad. Thanks, Dad! And a big shout out to San Jose Airport for the free wi-fi that made this post possible.
