Way Back When….

……Summer got married!! Bet you didn’t think this post would randomly show up after Thomas’s first birthday. Completely random and pointless, I know. Summer,  the sister that splits the “middle” with me and arguably has some “middle child syndrome” in her personality (although they like to push that title off on me!) got married before digital cameras were abundant and every human on the face of this planet had fifty facebook albums. Consequently, she has very, very few pictures from her wedding. I must have had some form of camera that weekend because I found some of these in the attic. I was at Beach Project that summer and came home for the weekend of her wedding.

 

So, here’s a few oldies but goodies from a long lost picture book that sits in my attic:

This one is from Easter. It looks like it would have been my sophomore and her senior year of high school. I think I got my blue skirt and matching blue shirt from Goody’s at the mall. I’m sure I thought the outfit was a hit. Summer might have worn those shiny silver shoes to prom that year. They look fitting for such an occasion. Up until a few months after I had Thomas, I had sported that same hair do. Long, straight, and parted on the side. I think I may be in the process of getting it back to that length again now…time will tell! We lived on our front porch growing up. Literally. We swung and rocked and talked on the cordless phone (once we got one) so we could have some “privacy” out there. Momma changed the wreaths with each season and lived out her southern hospitality with the sign that’s above our heads reading “Come Sit On My Porch…”. We lived on a culdesac and never knocked on our neighbors doors if we needed something. Life in a small town in the late 90’s was safe and southern.

One of Summer’s wedding showers…to the left of me are my three sisters…to the right are my two cousins, Kristy and Kacie.

Kacie and I cheered on Cheer South together, and I loved every minute I spent with her. She is fun and funny, caring and kind! And an amazing tumbler. She got all of the good gymnastic genes in the family because I never could even do a back tuck!

This picture was from Summer’s rehearsal dinner.

The blushing bride…

My sweet Grandma B…

Me and my handsome Daddy…

The newly weds!

Summer and Scott look like babies in these pictures! This was the day she officially became Summer Laine Clark…bye-bye, Summer Childs!

A Memory from Amanda Childs-Colony Reef

Your first thought right now is probably, “Why is she referring to herself in her maiden name??”

 

Good question!!!

 

Since this blog is a scrapbook of my life, I figured I better back track a little to the twenty-one years that I lived before I met Daniel! I will be doing occasional posts with scans of some old pictures I just pulled out of the attic and memories from days I lived long before the name Daniel or Smith ever meant anything to me:)

 

I figured since it was Summer time, and we are getting excited about our family vacation coming up soon, I would start with where my family used to vacation every summer.

 

Welcome to the Colony Reef in St.Augustine, FL. My family has vacationed there almost every summer that I can ever remember up until the last few years where we have started visiting St.George Island and Gulf Shores. I know that my parents were going long before I was even born because I’ve heard my Mom say that she can remember when Katie reached her arms through the balcony rails and dropped her bottle down a few stories. Needless to say, Daddy went and bought a net to put around the rails so nothing and no one else could slip through the rails!

 

Every year we would play “Leaning Tower of Pisa” with Daddy, but as the years went on, we got bigger and he got older. What was supposed to happen is that he would go under water and we would then stand on his shoulders crouching down. Then, he would stand up out of the water (Lord willing!) and we would stand straight up on his shoulders. He would then slowly start to fall  backwards and we would consequently fall backwards into the water yelling “LEANNNNNING TTTOWWWERRR OF PISSSSSA!!!!!”….and that was a Childs Family vacation for me growing up:)

 

I always was the one who was having to have the sun screen lathered and then re-applied thirty minutes later! I hated it as a kid, didn’t care much for it as a teenager, and don’t go a day without it now as an adult!

One of the most embarrassing things I can remember from my childhood was when we would go to the pool at the Colony Reef and Mom would make us wear NEON swim caps on our heads so that she could easily spot us in a pool filled with kids. NO ONE ELSE in the pool had to wear these though….only us! And you know as a kid that anything that your parents make you do that other kids parents aren’t making them do is just down right embarrassing.

 

Once we were too big for Leaning Tower of Pisa, we resorted to doing cheerleading stunts in the pool with Daddy as one of our bases. Does he not get “Daddy of the Year” for putting up with us??

   

 

As you can see in the picture above, we also got very bored on family vacation when it would rain. We would spend most of time then inside eating and watching t.v….this should not come as a surprise if you know us Childs. One time, Summer and I were sharing one of the bedrooms, and we were in there watching t.v. I got up to go get a kit-kat bar out of the kitchen, and she asked me to get her one. I replied (Jokingly! Very jokingly!)  “No, you don’t need one!” Well, I came back in the room eating my kit-kat in front of her and plopped down on the bed and the bed HIT THE FLOOR!!! Don’t you know she has never let me live down the fact that a bed broke when I sat down on it while eating a kit-kat!

 

So, there ya have it! My first post on what I hope to be a continuous series of memories from my childhood and probably more than you ever wanted to know about a Childs Family Vacation!