A Paddle in the Pond with Uncle...

My mother lives in a neighborhood that has a large pond. It's called Lake Ida, but it's not really a lake. Anyway, my brother was in town recently and took two of his nieces for a ride.




There used to be a restaurant on the pond, but it closed a few years ago. My brother would put the children in the raft and paddle to the restaurant. They would eat and then paddle back to the other side.

My brother loves his nieces and nephew. In fact, he never refers to Layton by name. He will ask, "How's nephew?" He enjoys recreating the danger of our childhood and then returning the children to their parents. When I say danger, I don't mean that we were dangerous children, but we did have an interesting grandfather. For example, if he were coming over to our house to grill, he would throw charcoal in his grill, load it in the back of his truck, light it on fire, drive to our house, and announce that the coals were ready. He taught us the joys of eating sardines while fishing and how to catch snakes in the creek. I think I am going to try and dig out some photographs of us with him. That would make an awesome post...things you did as a child that you would never in a million years let your child do.