Sam thought she could remain at her grandparents’ house if she pretended to be a kitten.

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Of course the kid who ADORES cats appears to be allergic to them. :-(. But Sam doesn’t let the sneezes get in the way of kitty love.

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shortly before Coach West’s family football hour kicked my keister.

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Pretty soon we’ll be able to pick cherry tomatoes without leaving the house.

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While AC and I packed up to leave, Sam spent the morning digging out the branch, rearranging rocks, and planning a “bath” for a spot just downstream from where we gather water to boil for washing dishes. When it was time to go, she did not want to leave. Just before bed this evening, she said, “Mommy, for my birthday, …

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It was hard to choose one photo among the many I took today. Candidates included Sam scooping water from the branch, AC helping Sam shoot an arrow into the hill with his boyhood bow, and AC chopping grass with a swing blade, moments before he sliced up a hornet’s nest (and told us to run into the house!) In the end I …

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When AC first took me up to the Shack–his family’s rustic retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southern Virginia–I was prepared for bumpy, dirt roads. I was not, however, prepared for hurtling up through a tunnel of rhododendrons so dense and thick and narrow that the branches scraped and squeezed the side of the …

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