Peaches

This was our peach day at the end of July in 2007. It was about ten days before The Colonel joined our family.

It was a great day for us at Apple Annie's. As tradional as picking peaches was for us by then, so was the sure presence of an afternoon monsoon thunderstorm. We enjoyed a piece of pie when the rain came, and I will always remember how Little Miss Natalie stuck her head in the streams of water coming down just outside the pavilion where we ate pie. She couldn't get wet or swim at that time because of her central line, so she relished this chance to get just a little wet and feel the water tickle her face. I remember her special Natalie joyousness--just another simple moment in life--but she enjoyed it and appreciated it in a way few people do. That has always been one of my favorite things about My Girl.










This is the first year Stephen has been around to join our family tradition of picking peaches. Funny that Stephen is just about the age of the last time we were able to take our Natalie, only about a six week difference in age. Also funny that Stephen's need to cut shag doo is longer than Nat's was then.

The last two years haven't worked out to pick peaches, last year we were especially disappointed when there was a hard freeze that ruined all the peaches for hours around us. Picking peaches was on Natalie's list of the things she really wanted to do this summer. I love that she included that. David and I had so much fun telling Natalie about the peach trees we both had as kids. It was fun to share that with her and she loved knowing about it. Stephen loved sneaking peaches, I think he ate three or four out there. I did too...warm peaches off the tree are like a taste of heaven on earth.


















This picture was taken on Aug 3rd 2006, it was the last picture taken of her until a few days after she was hospitalized on Aug 30th. It was a single, random picture taken just because she was being funny. Here she was eating in her soft chair, she no longer wanted to sit on hard kitchen chairs, but at the time I had no idea why. I never could've guessed that it was because she was having bone pain.

An entire month went by with no pictures of her. During that month, we did several fun, family things but must've kept forgetting the camera. Just like we forgot it when we picked peaches with her as a ten month old. After Natalie got sick, I hated looking back with that large gap of time with no picture of her.

Two weekends before she got sick we picked peaches. I remember getting apple cider and fudge for Natalie while we were there. Three days before she got hospitalized we found some old indian ruins in Casa Grande and took a tour of them. I still remember watching dozens and dozens of squirrels while we sat at a picnic table under a tree. My little girl. Funny the moments that stick out in your mind. I also remember going to eat at Eegees on the way home and she had a horrible "hard rock." Poor baby. It was almost a foreshadowing of what was to come. I still remember trying to help her through it and changing her in the car. It was terrible. Later that night was the first time her belly got distended. It was suddenly very, very big and it never went away. Of course now she is doing so well with that, but when I think of that time, those are some of the things I will never forget.