Grandpa Wally

A year ago today, my grandpa passed away. It's hard to believe that it's been that long that he's been gone. He'd been sick for a while, but some how you just always believe he'd pull through. We've always been a really close family. Some of my favorite memories of Grandpa were from family vacations we took together. We'd pile my parents, my sister and I, and my grandma and grandpa, and all our luggage in the family mini-van for a 2-week driving vacation. We saw Maine, Colorado, the Dakotas/Montana, the Northeast, and Washington DC that way. Up until the end of those vacations Grandpa kept up with Manda and I, climbing all over the rocks, having snow ball fights in the mountains, and playing whatever swimming pool game we made up that trip. One year we set forth on his birthday when he ate a meal in 3 different states . One trip, he also ate cold pizza for breakfast. You can't say we didn't rub off on him a little. :) And the games we played. We played word games, board games, dice games, and card games. Oh, the card games. My favorite grandpa saying is "It's a poor scorekeeper that can't win." I can't even begin to estimate how many hours of my life I've spent sitting at my grandparents kitchen table egging my dad to play his cards faster, or asking Mom how far ahead grandpa is, or convincing Grandma that she did in fact win that last hand. Every time I pull out a deck of cards to play something, my first thought is of Grandpa. Only now I add a little prayer to him to watch down on me, and maybe give me just a little bit of the Grandpa Wally luck.

Grandpa Wally, I love you just as much as I did a year ago when I said goodbye. I know that you're looking down on me, but just in case you're having trouble finding me, I'm the one with the red toenails.