Friday Foto Friends with Lily Grace

Yesterday was a very special day.  Mommie has already written about it over at Closed Doors, Open Windows today, so you can go over there and read all about it after you enjoy looking at my pictures...or you can go look at Mommie's pictures first if you want.  Just be sure to come back and visit me too, 'cause I love to have visitors too!

This picture ought to make you wonder what I was doing, but I will 'splain later.  I just thought this picture would be a good one to get your attention! 

So, Mommie already explained that yesterday was my brother Matthew's birthday, but he's up in heaven and we couldn't celebrate with him, but we wanted to still "celebrate" his birthday and remember him in a special way.  So Mommie and Daddy

 and my big brother Benton and Auntie Rose (who is really my sweet sister in love, but it's easier to say Auntie Rose) 

decided to take a nice ride and go out to lunch at an interesting place called the Florida Cracker Kitchen.

After they finished their lunch Mommie showed me this fun miniature golf place next door that has all kinds of fun animals that represent the early Florida Cracker cattle ranchers in some way.

So Mommie took my pictures while I was sitting on these fun animals:

This was a "wild pony"

And a BIG BLACK BEAR!   I was a little nervous, but he was very friendly and didn't mind me sitting on his bear paws at all:

These two monkeys were funny, and I guess monkeys used to be wild in the forests of Florida too:

This wasn't a "wild pig", but just a nice farm piggie.  

But this one was a Wild Boar, and they still run wild in the woods here in Florida today. They can be quite mean, so you don't want to get in their way. Thankfully, this one was pretty tame:

After I got to see and sit on all the animals, we took a ride to another special place.  Mommie said she has shared more pictures of this place for you before:  HERE and then again Here .  If you read those two posts, you will know why this place is so special.  Yesterday, because we had my big brother Benton and Auntie Rose with us, Mommie and Daddy especially wanted them to see it.  You see, my big brother Benton attended church camp here at Lake Swan Camp many many years ago when he was a young boy, and so did my big brother Matthew and my big brother Scotty.  Mommie tells the story all about that in the link above. 

Knowing that my big brother Matthew attended camp at this special place really made us all feel a little closer to him as we saw all the places that he saw, and heard about some of the stories of that week as my brother Benton recalled it.

I was wishing I could go jump in that pretty lake and go swimming, but Mommie said maybe on another day.

Then I wanted to go up on this giant slide and slide down into the water:

So now you know where THAT picture came from!

But I didn't slide. It was a LONG way down there and there was no one to catch me at the bottom. But I bet it would have been a lot of fun!!

So then I decided I wanted to be a lifeguard, and help save people's lives if they had trouble swimming!

Did you know that my Daddy used to be a lifeguard at the ocean?  I didn't know it either, until he told me about it!! He worked at one of the beaches one summer as a lifeguard, and had a lot of interesting stories to tell about the people whose lives he did save who were in deep water and struggling to swim. It was very scary, but he knew God was with him and helped him to do his job. 

It sure was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and it was warm! I wondered what it was like in heaven where my big brother Matthew is.  Mommie said it is always beautiful and perfect in heaven. There is no need for the sun or the moon there, because Jesus is the Light of heaven.

"The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light."

Revelation 21:23

Back at home Mommie wanted to see if anything was happening in the "Secret Garden", which is also a kind of memorial garden for my big brother Matthew.  Mommie said that oftentimes the climbing Don Juan Rose bush will bloom on or near special dates. This rose bush was originally planted in the memorial garden at our old house, and Mommie brought it with them when they moved here. It needs to be planted because it is still in a pot, but that is a spring project. The bush is getting new growth, which Mommie said it will be blooming again soon. Yay!!

Mommie said that also that plant that looks like it is dead in front of this sign was also from the Memorial Garden, and it is a "Rose of Sharon" bush. It is actually getting new leaves on it, so it is coming back to life again! Yay again!

We are having fun watching the bluebirds...another sign of new life, Mommie says...

And these Carolina Jessamine flowers are really blooming a lot now...

So I picked some along with some more fairy flowers, and we made a bigger bouquet in memory of my brother Matthew for his birthday.

I think he will like that, don't you?

Thank you for joining us for this special time of celebration in memory of my brother Matthew.

Mommie said this was one of her favorite pictures of him. I wish I could have met him. 

Happy Heavenly Birthday Matthew!!

Bye bye everyone,

Love,

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxo