Friday, February 24, 2012

a very special visit

the first house i ever lived in was a small two bedroom apartment in orem. i can't recall more than a hand full of memories from my time there. the most vivid memories i have, besides running into the couch resulting in stitches and getting my mouth washed out with soup, was a very loving uncle who lived below us. 

my sisters and i would often go missing, but my mom knew exactly where we were, uncle jonny's.
i remember he was always so welcoming, even though now as an adult i know it had to be bothersome at times having little girls knocking at your door all.the.time! it was as if he knew my mom needed a little break from our overwhelming energy. he would make us celery with olive and pimento filling and let us snack on chocolate wafer sticks. the smell of his musty basement apartment, his retro 70's couches and all his collectibles somehow was our little heaven away from home.

uncle jonny is very sentimental. visiting his home now is a trip back in time. he has paintings and drawings from all those years back. one of the teddy bears even has a nickel in his pocket that one of us girls gave to him. he has a hand painted lemonade sign framed in his office that one of my cousins painted along with several other framed art from his nieces and nephews. everything has a meaning to him. perry even got her name from his favorite color, perry winkle. i remember him showing me a crayon with the wrapper that said "perry winkle". when i was pregnant with perry we went to visit him around christmas like we do every year and perry-as a name-stuck in my head and i've loved her name ever since. 

on numerous holidays we receive a very thoughtful card from uncle jonny. not one addressed to our entire family, but one to steele, one to perry and one to brett and i. he has a very steady hand and loves to do calligraphy. he writes us each a little note in his beautiful handwriting. steele is always so excited to receive mail. it is such a kind way to let us know that we are his family and he loves us.

a few days ago, heidi and i took the boys down to see uncle jonny. steele was so excited, especially because i told him we were going to be able to play with a train set! it was all set up just for the boys. they were a bit rambunctious but it was it was a very nice day at uncle jonny's. 










we sure do love our uncle jonny!

3 comments:

Jenn Overton said...

Such a fun post Emily. So many great memories. That was no nice of Uncle Jonny to set up the train set for Steele and McCoy. I remember that Berenstain Bear car from so many years ago...I think you or Heidi even tried pulling the bears out of the back seat once!

Trevor Heidi McCoy said...

Yep, that was me...and it's still is broken:) it was such a fun day and i love going there every time. he's such a special uncle and i think we are so lucky that he loves us so much to be sentimental like that. there's so much joy in memories like these.

Karly said...

Oh how fun! Everyone deserves an uncle Johnny!