Our trip had one more stop: we had to make a long-awaited visit to Dave & Cindy, the Grunert Grandparents, and to spend some time with Jon's siblings and their families. I feel so much better about moving far away if the memory of having seen family and friends is so fresh.
First, we grabbed a picture of the kids at our traditional rest stop McDonald's in central PA...
Mostly inspired by this shot from 1985:
We're so wholesome and American, eh?
Then followed two peaceful days at Dave & Cindy's house in Annapolis. Michaela & Marshall arrived mid-day Saturday. What a treat to get to spend some more time with Baby Cousin Addison! and her parents, of course.
The kids got to see her current feats (nearly crawling, babbling, eating solid foods, laughing) and try to encourage her in them. And Sunday, Tim and Corey arrived to complete the family portrait.
Tim tries to figure out how to operate a baby
We had a delicious brunch, cooked by the Grunert kids (that's Mic and Tim and Jon, not the under 10 set). And before leaving, we made sure to grab a couple of pictures.
Grandparents with the Grandchildren (yes, this is the best I got)
And the whole gang! Whee!
The drive back was long, but kind of beautiful. I mean, it's the last time we're going to make that particular drive. There are a lot of lasts going on right now. I keep getting surprise sobs.
Now we're back home, I'm experiencing the joys of physiologically experienced stress. Doing my meditation, yoga, etc to mitigate this, but my body is struggling. Please pray for our strength and health as we approach the Great Packing of 2016!
Last Wednesday we got to visit one of my favorite places in Rochester.
No, not the statue of Mercury.
no, nor the public library, downtown branch
YES. You need to come here if you have not.
Dancing in the crazy effects dance lab was one of the more fun things I've done in a while. Miles and I might have been in there a while.
There's just.... so much..
We spent a lot of time on the second floor this visit, which is unusual for us.
Leah and Matthew brought the kids to hang out!
So the second floor has.... well, it has a lot. A lot of cool virtual games, it has the pin ball and the classic arcade, just... a lot. But it also has the collection of classic toys! and in addition to display items and educational material, there are play labs!
Barbie dollhouse in the barbie section, e.g.
As a kid, I would have spent all my time in the play house stocked with Madame Alexander baby dolls. Adele indulged me for a while. We set the table and had "guests."
I mean, there's a track for cars, a play area with castle and knights, the veterinarian for stuffed animals....
And a variety of display board games we enjoyed perusing, including this gem:
"It's not whether you win or lose, but whether you win!"
Leah & I could sit and talk, cozily, and see what the kids were doing. We might have stayed there for a couple of hours.
Miles and Abby probably spent most of their time as veterinarians or pediatricians.
I got to browse the doll collection, and learn a bit about Barbies...
The tagline on the box: "She's Black. She's Beautiful. She's Dynamite!"
Recognise any of these classics?
Being baby birds in Big Bird's nest:
Also in Rochester, we visited my favorite park, Mendon Ponds Park, met up with my godmother, had old friends over for dinner and spent cozy evenings with Dad, and often, with Agnes and Mercedes (Agnes' daughter) who have a special friendship with the kids.
Goodbye was hard. But it felt like just turning a really lovely page and having every reason to expect that the next page will be just as good.
We can't wait to see Grandpa Jim again, in Colorado!
We also went from family, to family. More quality time waited for us, in Maryland.
Tuesday found us back in the car again! This time, headed for Canada.
Waved at my city from the car, as usual
We had a lovely visit with my Grandma Dorothy, almost 94 years old as she is.
The kids played with her, we should her pictures of our new house and left photos with her.
And somehow, I managed to take zero pictures. I could really kick myself, especially since I don't know that we'll be back for another year. Oh well. We gave her a Lake Ontario rock, and the memory of many visits, and I got to see her smile and tell me she still plays Scrabble every week.
And we got to make good use of the rest of the day, too. There is nothing for an agitated, weary mind like white noise and gentle strolling. We made our first family visit to Niagara Falls!
It was a perfect, if cool, sunny day at the falls. We read a couple of plaques to learn a little about the First Nations who lived here, and about the impressions of the first European explorers upon seeing the falls for the first time. The kids just ran off all their car stiffness, frolicked and marvelled. I'm so glad we did it.
We got some really close up views that managed to make us both soothed and exhilarated at the same time;
A peaceful day that ended with dinner at Sticky Lips BBQ, a charmingly gritty little place with delicious food. Our family needed this! Even before he left for his research trip, Jon's been working weekends so long, it's really been a while since we've had so much quality family time all together. We needed to practice our team efforts for the big launch.
On Friday the 13th came the day of reunification with Papa! The day was no relief, however, until its conclusion at about 9pm. I took the day to clean and pack, so that I was a in a fair way to leave early. But the endless scavenger hunt to find the necessary documents for our mortgage was still underway. I found myself dragging both kids into my office that afternoon to scan and fax documents which had arrived at our house mail instead of in email, as we'd expected. But once we were all settled, I did manage to successfully drive the kids to Annapolis, to reunite Jon with the sleeping children and my exhausted self.
It was so sweet to be back together. Single parents get double halos in heaven and endless refills at the bar, man.
We spent one night in Maryland. Jon's family is mourning the sudden death of Dave's sister, Jon's Aunt Pat. His parents left on an early flight to attend the funeral, so we headed to Rochester earlier than expected.
There was a morning romp in the yard, first, which encountered 3 deer and one scary possum.
This was my week to reconnect with my first home, feeling myself once again belonging to it before we begin to create yet another new home in yet another state. It was time well spent.
Taylor Swift's 1989 (Adele's choice) got a lot of play on the road, and "Welcome to New York" especially.
We had some dramatic colors in the Southern Tier. I haven't been up to NYS in May in many years.
All week, someone besides Mummy read the bedtime stories.
Monday morning we hit up this classic Wegman's for some picnic makings and then took off in a northwesterly direction.
To Thirty Mile Point, where our family's campgrounds still thrives. Camp was not in session, but we had some recreation at the playground and by the water, cold and muddy thought it was.
These are sights so familiar I can see them with my eyes closed.
I think Jon looks good next to large bodies of water:
Many of the rocks write, chalk-like, on other rocks. Leah, my dear other L, and I used to leave each other messages. I wrote a commemorative one that day.
Miles especially loved skipping rocks.
She found the water thrilling. Especially the sea gulls.
Here's my "tutorial" on rock skipping, an art I've been practicing as long as I can remember.
And then, out of sheer determination, I got in. It was a ritual I'd promised myself for months, but I was kinda hoping it'd be a little warmer than the 40-something degrees. Thing is, when conditions are right, the Great Lakes are excellent swimming- the best, really. Water moves but not too roughly, no undertow, no salt to burn your eyes, just a gentle rocking sea. But it has to be still and hot for at least two days before this can be achieved. and on the 16th of May it was neither still nor warm.
But I needed another baptism!
....ended up being a sprinkle job. It was startlingly cold!
The kids got their feet wet, though.
And I was able to bring away some souvenir rocks, a couple of which ended up here:
The family gave me some time to sit by myself. I needed it.
Nevertheless, I was still exhausted when we got home to Dad's. But then, my agitated spirits got an unexpected lift. I had really given up on hearing any news about our mortgage, but then Jon disappeared with his phone, emerging only to smile at me and give a high-five, and I began to think we might be safe.
When he was finally off the phone, I had the pleasure of hearing our mortgage had been approved. We really were going to move into the house! I'm still to superstitious to post pictures of the house here yet. Watch for when we close next month, though!
That God saw fit to deliver us from this trouble, and for the prayers and support of our community (far and near), I am swellingly grateful. I have had a Psalm of Praise for every day of the week. The move is real now, and I can lean into it, embrace it, instead of placing it behind a sealed door of Agitating Thoughts in my mind. Thank God.
Here, the kids wait for Miss Agnes' arrival. They love the way she reads to them!
