I'm just going to throw out thoughts: Food, crazy food. Anything in the fridge was fair game and would be in soup tomorrow if not eaten. He was always trying to get me to try something new...he knew how picky I was about food, but he didn't care, he'd still try to get me to eat it. We'd laugh when he's day 'try this' and I'd say 'that's disgusting'. He didn't care, he kept trying, I kept declining. He'd always invite us over and he'd have the entire dinner ready when we got there from the bread, salad, entree, special drink, and dessert. Always all planned out. Working with pop was a normal daily thing, we built the cottage togehter, and my house. He was there every day, without fail, without a complaint, without the need for repayment. We called him 1/4 inch Bob - he always took the measurement and rounded it to the nearest 1/4 inch. Dan and him were so opposite, Dan wanted it perfect, Pop said 'that's good enough'. Any gaps...caulk it! He HATED when I came up with an idea with angles! Look at the cottage front porch and back steps - angles, him and Dan would go in a corner and do these calculations...and bingo there was the design and we made it happen. I remember one day taking sheet rock out of the house and putting it into this NEW truck and we broke the back window, he didn't miss a beat and we kept filling up the truck. Another time when it was soooo hot at the house in N. Stonington and the only way to cool was the stream. He was trying to talk us into going into the water but we wouldn't because there were leaches. He took Kylie down to the stream to cool down. Guess what, no leaches! Him and his torn shirt as a headband. Every day he'd have a new idea on what to try to make something easier or how to make something better. He couldn't stop his brain, always thinking. His theory was that if he kept his mind constantly challenged he'd not have to worry about when he got older and 'lose his mind'. My kids: every summer he'd take my kids for an entire week - all by himself and make a list of activities to keep them busy. He was always trying to get them to learn how to sail. He even bought a sailboat thinking that he would teach them to sail, but the kids were far from being interested. Thanks to Uncle Paul for using the boat once a year. He took the kids camping, kayaking, deep sea fishing, hiking, he even took them to FL this year. In August he took Kylie, Bowen, Sam, Addie to FL, thankfully he also took Wendy to help him. They had a ball going to Bush Gardens...and the best spot was the pool he put in at his house. The pool that took I'd say about a year to get put in. I remember when Kylie was a infant. He came to visit and wanted to go out to eat. I wouldn't because Kylie cried all the time, he didn't care and made me go out with him, we did and we had fun even when she cried. My dogs, he always said that my boxer is the ugliest thing he's ever seen. But at the same time he was always giving them snacks and sitting with them on the couch. I know when we'd come to the cottage to stay while he was there wasn't ideal as his cat was scared of our dogs, but he would just put the cats food in his room and they all lived in harmony. The christmas trees: every year on MOTHERS DAY (don't ask me why he picked that day) but he would order hundreds of christmas trees to plant. We'd all bring the tools, get food, bring friends, so that we could plant all the trees in a weekend. He took care of the trees in between yearly plantings - he'd mow them, spray them with insecticide, prune them. Vacations: I remember trips to bluff point. Him pulling us up the riverway against the current. Him throwing our new puppy in the water at the point to 'teach him to swim'. Him forgetting about me at bluff point and made me walk to a phone to get a ride home! Clamming and cooking the steamers over the fire, a clam squirting mom from a bucket nearby. Him teaching us to waterski and bringing us tubing. For a while pop was paying to bring us as a family on trips. He would pay for the house and we'd just need to get there. Of course he's do all the research and when we got there he'd have all these ideas on what we were to do, to eat, to see. Camping: the first thing we'd do when we got to Hopeville pond campground was to dig a trench around the tents as we always got rained on. We'd build shelves for all the food we'd bring for 6 people for 1 week of camping. Jumping off his shoulders in the pond...leaving with ear infections. Volleyball with all the other campers. He'd call me babes. I thought he only called me that until I started hearing it more and more, then realized he called all the women in his life babes. He always, always, always had a smile.