PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/31/2008

I have lots of pictures of Trent when he was younger and could easily fill several more weeks with them, but in the past 10 years or so, he has mastered avoiding the camera! I have lots of him from the back! But I so wanted to have something recent for today, so last night I went over to his house to visit him and had fun taking pictures of him and Tux. This is as up-to-the-minute as you will ever see!

Here they are at the deck outside his back door. I was standing in the driveway to take this picture. Tux is antsy to get down, so Trent has a good grip on him!

Calmly sitting in front of Trent's computers...

...and then the playing begins!




Both of them, all riled up!

(This last picture is my favorite! They are so good for each other!)

I hope you have had fun meeting Trent on his birthday week! I have had such a good time tracking down pictures, taking new ones, and just reliving lots of memories.
I love you, Trent!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/30/2008

Trent (right), his best friend Grady, and his cousin Stephanie
all dressed up at the Junior/Senior Banquet (their school's equivalent of a prom).

They went as a trio and left our house in a limo.
Stephanie was absolutely elegant that day,
and the boys were so handsome in their suits!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/29/2008

Trent and some of his friends played soccer for a recreational league when they were in the third and fourth grades.

A windy day!

His team picture the year he played on his high school team. He was in the 9th grade.

Oh, some of those morning games were cold!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/28/2008

Several pictures today...

Trent had some fun toys when he was little. Most of them were passed on to him from other families who had outgrown them or from garage sales, as the budget was pretty tight! He used to get on this horse and bounce up and down with all his might. Up he would go, and on the way down again, his hair stood out like this, up he would go again, and down he came with his hair all sticking out! We had so much fun watching him! But no matter how much fun his toys were, his very favorite activities showed me that kids don't necessarily need a lot of expensive toys to make them happy....

He passed up all his toys to spend time in here. He would take all the bags and boxes out on the floor and just have so much fun. He couldn't hurt himself with it, so I gave up on trying to keep it in order and just kept stuffing everything back in there. The other cupboard had my pots and pans, and that was the next source of noisy entertainment. He had the best imagination for how to play with ordinary kitchen things!

I had a lot of magazines on that bottom shelf, and Trent just loved to take them all down onto the wood floor. He didn't tear them up or ruin them, but he liked to take them all down, sit on them, and look at them. He was too little to put them back, so there he left them. He would come trotting around the corner, forgetting about all those slick magazines on the floor, and down he would go, thumping his head. Wail, wail, wail! And I would comfort him and help him pick up the magazines! It happened a lot of times!

(I'm so glad we took these pictures, because they help me to remember what he was into all day as a very little boy! He always knew how to keep himself occupied and was happy playing by himself as long as Mom or Dad was close by.)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/27/2008

Trent and me

This was taken at the 4th of July picnic in the mountains about 6 weeks after Trent had his 2nd birthday.
This is one of my favorite pictures!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/26/2008

Happy Birthday, Trent!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/25/2008

Trent waking up from a nap!

Tomorrow will be Trent's 26th birthday, so this week the pictures will all be about him.
Just one look at his little face here, still too little for the crib, and you will know why I say he was the smartest, most alert baby ever! (Of course, you have to forgive me if you think I am biased on this!) He was for the most part a very good-natured baby and very patient with the fact that his older sister could not do as many things as he could and often needed attention more urgently than he did. I guess in many ways he was the little brother and the big brother all at the same time.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/24/2008

When Coral was little, we got a piano. One of her very favorite things was to sit and "play" it for hours on end.

(Just check out that challenging music she is working on!!)

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/23/2008

Happy Birthday, Barry!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 05/22/2008

Trent hugging his cousin Stephanie

Stephanie and her family had been living in Liberia where they were missionaries and had come back to the United States just in time for the birth of Stephanie's brother, Nathaniel. It was so exciting to have a cousin his own size to play with!
(That is "Grandma" Entz in the background. She took care of Coral and Trent for me every day when I used to work in an office. What a brave lady!)

(All the toys a kid could want, and they choose the old margarine container every time!)