Last memory

My brother would be 24 today if he were still alive and I'm sure we'd be having dirt cake with him to celebrate. My mom came over with some ingredients today and I made dirt cake anyway, we'll have some later tonight with my parents. I don't think the boys will be fooled by it's appearance, we tell them every year that it's real dirt from the garden with real worms and they still eat it. If you want our recipe, it is here at this link.

I was thinking about the last summer I had with my brother (summer of 1998) and how we spent a little time together before I went back to college. I used to work for a grocery store and there was a company picnic at the local park. I invited Jared to come along with me, at first he didn't want to. He just wanted to sit home and be bored. However, I had a clever plan that involved his best friend, our dog and some roller blades. He eventually agreed to come and we enjoyed a few hours at the park. This was the last picture I ever took of him, he's the one on the right.....



My brother loved the dog, her name was bandit. My family had her from a puppy and until the day she died, she was very old. I can't remember when she died exactly, but I was married with at least one of the kids. So that's pretty old considering we got her in the early 90's.



If there was one thing Jared really enjoyed, it was my dad's 4-wheeler. He would ride that thing up and down the street and into the sagebrush across the street. He gave the Japanese exchange students a ride when we had them for 2 weeks, that was a lot of fun to watch.