Flashback Friday::My house and the park

I am going to use Friday as my childhood flashback for awhile. I had the best childhood. Don't get me wrong, we went through some pretty shitty stuff! But the good times far outweighed the tragedies and I want to make sure I always remember them. I have always been grateful to my parents for staying in the same house for so long for our benefit. We had so many great friends and still keep in contact with most of them to this day! I can hardly wait to reminisce about each one of them in these flashback blogs.
I went to the old neighborhood this week. Gosh it brought back so many memories. I could go on for days! And I will, just not all in one post. :) I remember some of the most bizarre things too. I'm going to try and be as candid as possible.
From the age of 5 to 19 I lived at 4171 Nystrom Way. My parents sold the house when I was 23.
I love the layout of this house. When you walk in the front door, there was a good size entry way with a little nook for a desk and a big chandelier over head. If you walked straight you'd go right up the stairs. But for now we'll go left to the living room with the piano and my mom's curio cabinets with her music box collections. Then on to the formal dining room with the hutch housing my mom's china. It was a beautiful set and I'd get so excited when we'd have a meal that called for the good china. I take great care in pulling out each piece starting with the big plates. They were always sandwiched between two paper towels for protection. Then the little plates, glasses and silverware. The silverware was in a special drawer lined with felt. I loved handling it all!
Next to that was the kitchen. Big and open. There was a good size laundry room/pantry attached. When we became teenagers and wanted to talk on the phone, we would go in there, shut the door and sit on the washer to have privacy when we had terribly 'important' things to talk about with our friends. :)
On the other side of the kitchen was the informal dining room. I still remember the things that adorned the wall the entire time I lived there! Behind where my dad sat there was a gigantic wooden fork and spoon. Behind where my mom sat there was a photo of Jesus with four kids sitting around him. Since there were four of us kids we each knew which one of those kids was us.
Next to the that dining room was the family room. That lead to a hallway with a bathroom and closet and back to the entryway. It was one big circle and we LOVED it! We would chase each around that thing to know end! I remember once my parents went out of town and my mom's parents came from Idaho Falls to watch us. We got my mild mannered grandpa to chase us around. It made our day. And obviously, I've never forgotten. We also had the best and only dog I've ever loved. It was a tiny little Pomeranian Poodle. Anyway, I had/have this blue blanket that my grandma made me and the dog, Buffy, loved it. We would run around it with the blanket trailing behind us and Buffy would chase us trying to get the blanket. If she actually bit it, she would just glide across the entry way or kitchen floors! :) It still makes me laugh. I also remember the time my grandpa was chasing us, he fell at the entry way and it cracked the old dry skin on the inside of his palm wide open. It made me so sad to see blood coming from my grandpa. I loved him.
So now up the stairs.
Just to the left of the stairs was the bedroom I inhabited with my younger brother from the age of 5 to 16. That's the window to the far right in the photo below.I loved sharing a room with him and we were by far the closest growing up. We'd stay up late sharing secrets and talking. We loved listening to music each night to go to sleep.
Next to that room was the bathroom, the window in the middle and next to that was my older sister's room, the window to the left. Next to her was my older brother's room. When I was 16 he went on his mission and my little brother took his room. That was the first time I had my own room. It was so fun to get all new furniture and decorate it my way. But I sure missed my brother. I don't know if he ever knew that.
The room he took was the fun room because it had roof access. We'd get up there and just hang out. Then we'd jump off onto the trampoline. The neighborhood hoodlums loved it too! :)
You can just barely see the window above that roof.
My parents bedroom spanned the whole front of the house. The three windows across the front in the first photo.
My parents put a pool in when my brother was on his mission. We named the vacuum that cleaned the pool after him so that he could feel like he was swimming with us while he was gone.
Once they put in the pool, my parents did all the landscaping stuff. They paved right under the roof where the trampoline used to sit. But if you look to the right on the house in the photo, that used to be all grass, and our trampoline was over in that corner. They now have a stupid dog run back there and from the diving board to the dog run is rocks instead of grass. I loved our backyard. I loved having all the kids in the neighborhood swimming everyday of the summer. Playing spin the bottle in the hot tub. Going skinny dipping. Or better yet, when the guys would go skinny dipping and we'd go steal their suits and hang them in trees and then watch them retrieve them as they tried so hard not to reveal their goods. So stinkin' funny!
It was located in:Behind our house we had a park. We had so many good times there. I was shocked to go there this week and see that it's completely different! The toys used to be right up next to the tan fence with was our fence. The fact that it has changed pissed me off because now I couldn't get the photos of the backyard that I wanted. Nice. It is a nice playset though.
The neighborhood also had these cool paths, two that went into the park and two in different blocks to get from one side of the block to the other without having to go all the way around.
I loved our neighborhood! It seemed everyone was always outside and for the most part we all got along.