A Perfect Last Day

On Saturday, before the cold front moved in, Brett proposed taking the dogs for a swim in Rocky Bayou. Although it was cloudy, it was relatively warm. The sun peeked out of the clouds a few times, and it turned out to be a very pleasant morning by the water.

The boys had spent the night at Oma's house the night before (the night of Brett's work Christmas party). I knew the boys would want to come with us, so we called them in the morning and told them to hurry over and join us.

The six of us (Brett, Becca, Todd, Ryan, Sandy, and Copper) loaded into Brett's truck and drove down to the State Park. The dogs were in the water before Brett reached the bottom of the stairs. And it didn't take long at all for the boys to take off their shirts and start wading in the water and digging in the sand.

Todd and I walked along the shore looking for pirate treasure, with no success. Later, Todd tried digging for water, with good success.

Brett threw a "dummy" for Copper and a bright yellow Frisbee for Sandy. Occasionally the boys gave a shot at throwing the dummy as well.

No, this is not some new dance the boys are trying out. They are just animated in the cheering they are doing for the dogs. "Go, Sandy!" "Go, Copper!"

We tried to capture Copper's running jump into the water when he goes after the dummy.

Ryan played at being a retriever, and did a pretty good job of it.

I'm sure this next photo looks cruel to those who were not present. Actually, it was quite funny and did not produce the tears that one might expect. Ryan was bending over to get his hair wet. Brett lightly tapped Ryan's bottom, sending him off-balance. It produced a nice laugh from us all, including Ryan.

Todd was really getting into his hand-digging.

Sandy also enjoyed digging in the sand. In fact, Sandy enjoyed everything about the day. It was easy to forget that she was ten years old. Brett threw the Frisbee rather far, and she swam out and retrieved it every time. Brett said he thought Sandy would have kept going longer than Copper that day, and I think he was right.

While at the park I thought what a perfect day it was. It is not often that our family enjoys a nice outing all together. Everyone was happy. Everyone had a great time.

Sandy died late that night. Looking back, we feel blessed that we had one last perfect day with her doing something she loved more than anything else.