Our last day in Michigan was absolutely perfect. The weather was incredible and breezy, and we had no agenda. It really was a day where I felt like we just soaked everything in. Perhaps I was feeling very nostalgic, but it was one of those days where my childhood memories just kept coming in floods, along with that strange feeling in the pit of my stomach - a mix of longing and homesickness, of being a kid again, though I love where my life is right now, too. Watching Ellison go barefoot everywhere in my parents' yard this past week, having so many things to do outside, and 3 big, beautiful connected yards to do it all in. I am so glad we went home in the summer this time. We almost always go back home in the late fall. It's strange being at my parents' house with it looking so different - every single room, the basement, and even the outside of the house have all been remodeled, but yet everything still feels perfectly like home. I feel so fortunate that I still get to visit the home I grew up in... that my parents are still there. Papa Carl has left such a big hole in the "back home" experience since he's gone, and that's the biggest change that we just can't get used to over the last 3 years since his death. When either my parents or my aunts/uncles next door see something outside, like say a wild fox or a bunch of deer, they all call each other up to go out or look out the windows. It's just completely unnatural to not have Uncle Carl there, too. He was ALWAYS outside, tinkering around the yard, or in his now-empty and saw-dustless workshop. He's the only thing missing, and man, would he have loved watching so many grandkids grow up (my parents and he & Aunt Yvonne "share" their grandkids). He was SUCH a child-lover...
All aboard for the wagon ride hitched up to Grandpapa's little tractor.
And we're off! We took a beautiful, long, relaxing ride going through the yards, then around the whole section, and back into Humpula's land and Aunt Sally's land, and to see the peacock and rabbits at the Ruddy's. It felt so good, yet that longing kept creeping up, as I looked at the corn field I got lost in as a kid (and ended up 1/2 mile down the road crying when the lady on the corner found me), the roads me and Shawn spent countless summer days riding our bikes, the old ditch drain down the road me and Shawn used to hang out inside, my parents' side yard we 3 sets of cousins played a gazillion games of kickball, SPUD, softball, and football in during the summer. Mmm...
This was about 1 minute before she completely zonked out in Grandma's lap, with the hum of the tractor and the warm breeze blowing on her skin. It looked like heaven for both of them. :-)
After we returned home from our little wagon journey, we stopped in at Uncle Bob's, where Mookie had been begging to go pick raspberries. The night before, Uncle Bob had left her a note on the kitchen counter with a bowl full of raspberries while we were gone, saying he picked them for her and that she could come over and pick some more of her own, too. She was a little rough waking up abruptly from her little siesta, but quickly decided the raspberries were worth it.
Love this pic of the two of them...
Then it was back to her fave spot, with Papa.
Though it looks like an animal, that's a pregnant mama attempting to run around the yard playing hide-and-seek behind the trees with Little Miss, Grandma, and Daddy.
That evening, the 5 1/2 of us stopped by the cemetary to put flowers at Papa Carl's grave. Ellison's a little warped like we are - she loves cemetaries! She had grandma read her the names, and it was like a playground there for her. Afterwards, we picked up Grandma Yvonne and we drove over to the Red Caboose for some yummy ice cream. Another childhood summer staple - evening family runs to go get ice cream. This evening was the very first glimpse the grandparents got of Ellison being a little pistol! Grandma couldn't believe it, 'cause she had never seen it. And frankly, it hasn't been that common for us either, but this summer has been a different story! But that's a different post entirely.
[August 25, 2010]
