We got the news that my grandmother had passed away at the Fongs' on Saturday, the last day of camp. We went to church again on Sunday and then left Chicago on Monday to drive to the Twin Cities. That took about 6 hours and the kids did pretty good. Traffic was even good.
First we visited Terry's friend John Sugihara. John is a former student from Lakeside church who was in the youth group when Terry did it in Chicago. They reminisced about staying in Terry's dorm room all night playing games, then doing the same in his apartment, learning to drive stick in Terry's famous Blazer, climbing Mt. Rushmore w/o me b/c I was sick with mono, all those years of camp. It was fun. We ate pizza, Noah spilled an entire glass of Sprite on his floor and John still said he could just watch Noah play all day b/c he was so entertaining. What a great guy.
Then John got GPS directions to my friends' house in St. Paul - Matt and April! We got there at bedtime but kept the "big kids", Noah and Nathan, up anyway. Evie and Ella went to bed. It was so good to hang out and see that her son does the same things that mine does. That night we stayed in the nicest hotel I've ever been in thanks to John - the Radission. Yeah, sleep number beds and everything. Of course, we didn't discover they were sleep number beds until after we had slept on them. =)
Tuesday, we hung out with April and the kids at the rec center by their house, joined Matt at Chipotle for lunch and talked in the parking lot while trying to keep Nathan from running into the lane. =) We hung out with John after that until we had to leave. John's great. From John's we drove east a couple hours to Willmar where my aunt and uncle live. We stayed the night with them and my Grampa and even got in a mini date to Culvers and Target after the kids were in bed (it's nice to have more than one room with kids!).
Wednesday afternoon we drove another couple hours to Canby, where my Gramma and Grampa grew up and raised their family. 1600 people. We had made reservations at the only motel in town, even gave them my credit card number and told them my dad might be calling to make a reservation as well. Terry went in to sign us in and they told him they didn't have a room b/c we were supposed to call them back and confirm the room. Whatever. I was so irate. And they were very rude to Terry. Don't ever stay at The Tower Motel in Canby. Terrible place. From there we changed, got a room a half hour away and went to the viewing. Thursday was the internment and reception lunch at the church and then we drove 8-9 hours home.
It was good to be home but I still miss everything, or everyone, A LOT. I seem to have gotten used to living out of a suitcase and having a social life.
This is Wednesday before we went to Canby and my Grampa playing with Evie.
Noses
Take note of Noah's face. Yeah. Can't sit still for nothin.
She's either "finding her voice" by yelling or she's crying. Yeah, Noah taught her how to yell in the car. =)
Terry and John outside his apartment.
Ella pushing Evie away before we went to the park.
Walking to the rec center.
Checking out the binoculars.
Visiting.
Terry provides the necessary force for the little teeter totter for Nathan and Noah.
I love the picture where Ella is pushing Evie away. It is so cute - especially the look on Evie's face. :)
ReplyDelete