Those were the good old days!

I had the opportunity to go visit the home I lived in for the first 13 years of my life. Thanks to a friend and current owner of the home who was generous enough to let us invade her privacy to explore and show Addie and the boys my old stomping grounds. The porch pictured above is where I spent a good deal of time petting my kittens pebbles and vanilla.

The cherry tree was my home. My childhood best friend and I spent countless hours in that tree. We called it our apartment. It is one of the oldest existing trees in Santaquin. It was so fun to be able to climb this tree again. I wish I could have stayed longer.

The inside of the home, although in many ways is very different than I remember.( it looks so much better than when we lived there.) There is no longer 70"s shag carpet and mustard yellow vinyl flooring. But some things remain the same like the popcorn ceilings. which by the way is fabulous to a six year old. and this fireplace where multiple DeGraffenried children experienced trauma that sent them to the emergency room for stitches.

why the fence? This is where I would ride my bike down the sloping backyard and one day got my lip caught on the fence while zooming down on the bike. Stitches were required and I lost a few more baby teeth that day.

The long road. Bones and I would race from the backyard to the front yard on this path. We thought it was soooo long.

The backyard where the brost's and degraffenried's played numerous baseball games.

This is the shed behind our house. I used to climb on the roof and read books under the tree (left side of the picture)When my mom would catch me I was in trouble but I would climb up the next chance I had and do it again.

We also had a Pasture and a chicken coop. During my years there, we had horses, cows, a dog who thought he was a cow, and chickens.

Peyton in the shade tent, a bunch of trees clustered together that was another hideout and hangout place for Bones and I, and later on Tommy and Carlene used it but called it the hut. I personally think the shade tent is a much cooler name.

another pic of the shade tent.

I loved this part of my childhood. Our yard was awesome we could explore and pretend all day and never get bored. During the summer we would have boat races in the ditch, climb trees, sell stuff from our food storage to our neighbors( mom and dad weren't too happy when they found out about that one)play in the jungle and on and on.

I wish my kids could have the same kind of childhood.