Sunday, November 26, 2017

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2004. Every August we took Mattie to Los Angeles to visit my parents. That day we took Mattie to the Descanso Gardens. A place Mattie loved to go because they had an enchanted train. The train made for a fun way to get around the gardens. Of course Mattie was very much into trains and anything with locomotion!











Quote of the day: Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children. ~ Alex Haley

In honor of my mom's birthday today, I posted several wonderful photos of her with Mattie. From the moment I found out I was having a baby, a switch flipped and I began taking photos of everything. Thankfully I did this. Naturally I took photos to hopefully share with Mattie in the future, never realizing that these would be my only Mattie reminders for years to come. 


This adorable photo was taken on an extremely HOT day at the Los Angeles Zoo. I remember this day vividly, as we bought this purple spray bottle and fan for Mattie to use at the Zoo. I still have this gizmo in Mattie's closet today. 

This photo was taken right in front of the US Capitol Building. Peter took a wonderful photo of all four of us, and whenever I go to Los Angeles, I see this framed photo daily. 

This photo was taken at Balboa Park in San Diego. What a fabulous and beautiful Park, which has something for everyone. In Mattie's case, he loved the train museum and fountains the best. 

This photo was taken at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. I can't tell you how many times we visited this park with Mattie. It had to be one of his favorites. Here we were sitting on a train that took us on a short loop of the park. Along the way, we passed farm animals and cute Disney type scenery. Mattie loved the train, the pony rides, and the dentzel carousel at the park. Ironically I never visited this park (and neither had my parents) prior to Mattie's birth.

Mattie was in love with Legos. Therefore it should be no surprise that Legoland was his favorite theme park. My parents took Mattie to Legoland several times, and he never got tired of his adventures. Particularly Mattie loved the roller coasters at the park, which was a surprise to me and my parents. As we are roller coaster averse. Thankfully Mattie went on these rides with Peter. Mattie got a wonderful Legoland driver's license at the park, that is still hanging on Mattie's closet knob. 

My mom and Mattie by my parent's pool. Mattie had a very cautious nature about water. Which in my opinion was a good thing. He wasn't the kind of kid that wanted to jump into the water, and it took many swimming lessons to get Mattie acclimated. 

Peter and I rarely were home for Christmas, as we have spent the majority of our married life visiting family over the holidays. Regardless of our traveling, for many years we would decorate. In this case, our tree made a beautiful backdrop for this photo. Many of the ornaments on our tree were made by Mattie. Though we no longer decorate (we haven't had a Christmas tree in our home since Mattie died) I have kept all of Mattie's creations. 

In the midst of working today, we took Sunny for a walk on the National Mall. As you can see Sunny was very focused on what else? SQUIRRELS!!!