My childhood was the best. From what I can remember, at least. Growing up the eldest of five proved to be an interesting, difficult, and hilarious. One of my earliest memories is the day my youngest sister Abby was born. I remember Dad rushing downstairs after dinner telling us to finish cleaning off the table, because he had to take us to Aunt Terri's because mommy was going to have the baby!
Every summer was spent at my Grandma Fren's house with my cousins. I think it was almost every day we would head over there and spend all afternoon swimming, swinging on the play set, running around her yard, eating ice cream, and watching movies. We also had the Peldenrust Pig Roast to look forward to every summer. My dad and his best friend started throwing it a year before my parents got married and it was just a big summer party with food, drinks, volleyball (at the beginning for the adults) and laughs. Later, we added a moon bounce for the kids to play around in. :) Oh! And camping. My family loooooved to go camping during the summer with our friends. We would go for at least a month out of the summer and it was always the best time of the year. And how can I forget 4-H! My family began participating in 4-H and the county fair when I was 7 years old. (I think. My memory is fuzzy). Combined, we have shown cows, chickens, ducks, horses, steers, pigs, and lambs. It was the most challenging and exhausting work during the summer and there were many times I loathed it, especially the one time I was dragged through a cornfield by a cow... but we won't talk about that anymore. However, looking back at years in 4-H, I know that it shaped me to be a more responsible person and it was a huge part of my childhood.
Living on a farm, fall or "harvest time" was always one of the busiest times of the year. We'd get to ride in the tractor or combine with dad sometimes, which was obviously the coolest. Halloween was always one of my favorite childhood memories. My mom would get all of us kids ready, haul us around in the car to all of our friends and family and we'd always end up at Grandma Frens' house. Now, this was always the best part of Halloween, because Grandma loves to dress up for Halloween. Every year she'd buy a new costume and we would spend all night trying to guess what she might be. She's been everything from a skeleton with blood dripping down the ribs, to a blow-up cowboy. Plus, she always had my favorite kind of sugar cookies to eat when we got there!
During the holidays, we'd split our time between the Pell and Frens families. We always had Thanksgiving with my mom's family, and then two parties for each side during Christmas. The Pell Christmas was always on Christmas Eve. My Pell family is pretty big... and Grandma and Grandpa's house isn't the biggest, so the Christmas party was always loud, rowdy but a lot of fun. The grandkids loved running around, playing foosball in the basement, and eating some of Grandma's famous cherry cobbler. Christmas morning at my house was (and still is) one of my favorite times of the year. When we were younger, I don't think my siblings slept for more than two hours on Christmas Eve. We would try to stay up all night, watching movies, reading, playing games, anything to pass the time until Dad came home from milking cows and we could run downstairs to open our stockings and then our presents.
Birthdays were always a cause for the family to get together, eat great food, cake and my dad's AWESOME hot fudge. Seriously, you can't beat it.
I'm very grateful for the awesome childhood I had. My family blessed me with a lot of great memories :)
My first Halloween.
At a petting zoo in Arizona.
Caitlin, Jessica, and I.
Caitlin, Dad, Abby, Mom, Seth, Jessica, and I.
Cocoa the cow and I.
Jessica, Caitlin, Seth, and I before the first day of 5th grade.
