Tuesday, June 06, 2006

OFF AND RUNNING

Urban Stampede Coffee Shop: I finally have some time alone so am able to write a few lines. It is Tuesday and we are in Grand Forks North Dakota on the fourth day of our great adventure to Alaska. We left home on Saturday afternoon with tears flowing down my face after saying good-bye for the next couple of months to my mom and my daughter and family. Both of the grandsons we have along with us were excited and happy and chattering a mile a minute for the whole two hours we drove to visit our son and his family. The truck worked great, and pulled the heavy laden RV with no effort, and we arrived at our destination on time and were treated to a wonderful dinner at a nice place along the river. The two grandsons we have with us had a great time playing with their cousins, also 11 and 13, and the basketballs were bouncing in the driveway and sailing through the air and finding their target oftener than I would have expected. The two 13 year olds are on their school teams, and have become quite skilled players.

On Sunday DH and our son took off for a whole day of golf, and our daughter-in-law and I took the 4 boys to a local lake for some swimming. Dinner that evening was cooked on the grill by our son and was a real feast, pork loin and asparagus. NUMMY! We spent a nice evening sitting on the deck and visiting and playing with their new puppy.

Yesterday we took off on our trip across Minnesota and arrived in Grand Forks in time to spend the evening visiting with another son, his wife, and our 3 year old grandson who was meeting his two cousins for the first time. We don't get to see this son and his family very often, so it was a lot of fun catching up and looking at family photos. We hope to see them again tonight.

This morning we had a crisis. DH couldn't get his satellite TV dish to work! Oh no! Now what will he do? The boys and I left to find computer access and he continued to work on the TV. When we got home we found he had called a repairman to come and help figure things out. It's a good thing this state park is located right in town, or I'm afraid he would have paid a pretty huge price getting a repairman out to fix it! When I left for this coffee shop to get online, they had the thing working and I'm guessing are sitting down for the afternoon to surf channels and discover what they can or can't figure out.

It's going to be interesting to be living with a teen and a pre-teen for the summer after we have raised our seven kids and have now had an empty nest for quite a few years. It will also be a learning experience for the boys, adapting to grandma and grandpa's parenting instead of mom and dad's. The eleven year old is a very gentle caring young guy, and I'm afraid it would be pretty easy to hurt his feelings and cause him to cry. The thirteen year old is a bit more mouthy and can cop an attitude pretty easy. After all, he is thirteen! So life will be different for all 4 of us this summer. But I do know that we are all looking forward to the next 3 months and that we will all do our best to get along and enjoy this special time we have together. I know I can't wait to get on the road tomorrow, head north and cross the border into Canada. It will then seem like we are really off and running.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Ahhhhh...Grand Forks..."Home Sweet Home"! It looks a lot different around there, doesn't it? GFAFB is different, too -- there's a fence all around it, so if kids who live in Sunflake Circle were to sneak out (I don't know what kind of kids would DO that, but...) at night, they wouldn't be able to get on base! :-)

Unknown said...

Ahhhhh...Grand Forks..."Home Sweet Home"! It looks a lot different around there, doesn't it? GFAFB is different, too -- there's a fence all around it, so if kids who live in Sunflake Circle were to sneak out (I don't know what kind of kids would DO that, but...) at night, they wouldn't be able to get on base! :-)

Enjoy your trip! Can't wait to follow along with your adventures!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I've been waiting and looking to see where you are and how soon we will see you in Alaska!! I've been enjoying your daughter's blog. I've caught up on what is going on in her life. I didn't realize that this would be so much fun!! I admire you both writing all of this. It would take me days just to enter a single journal!! Can't wait to see you in Anchorage!! Keep us posted. love, GL in AK

norskeneil said...

My brother's gone, he's done retired, no he's not dead, just went rv'n, A full time rv'r, fifth wheel in tow,wife in his arms, Alaska their goal.Took grand-son's, along for the ride,not a dull moment, that's guaranteed.We will miss younger brother and his lovely wife,we pray they enjoy, full-time rv life.