A Visit and a Journey

We found out last weekend that my parents would be coming in from Arizona to visit the area because of the funeral of a dear old friend. My dad would be speaking at the service. I thought maybe they would come in for a night or two then head back, but they stayed all week! It was such a lovely surprise and a wonderful time with them.

We realized that they had never stayed as guests in this house because, well, up until last year,  they had their own house in the area. So we got to haul out the air mattress and get them all set up in our family room. They are very easy-going about things like that and everything worked out great.

Monday we just visited and ran errands and such, then Tuesday was the funeral, which was perfect since that was my last day of class (more about that in another post). That night was a fun family dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger, a favorite spot.

Wednesday a gorgeous day so we decided to get away to Brookside Gardens. It was actually my first visit to the gardens. I've been to the playground nearby at Wheaton Regional Park, but never here. It was lovely. I got all my love of gardening and flowers from my mom, and a deep appreciation of the natural world from my dad so it was great fun to walk the paths and hear them identify all the plants they knew and curiously note all the names of the unfamiliar ones. I saw many, many  things I want to find for my own garden. There was so much in bloom and it was an altogether pleasant way to spend the day with my mom and pop. I love seeing my mommy in her pink hat!

After I got my folks out the door to the airport very early this morning, I got on task to get my kids out the door for their latest adventure. Since Sam is leaving for his mission in a couple of weeks, he wanted to see his cousins in Kentucky. So we planned a quick trip since today is a day off school. Everyone got up and got themselves together so they could leave as soon as Johnathan got home from taking a final.  The goal time was noon and I was really proud of their work to get ready. Sam kept hollering a friendly countdown to keep everyone aware of the time and they drove away at 12:14. Amazing.  I was going to go with them, but it just worked out better to stay home to help with some things here. So, Eric and I get a surprise weekend all to ourselves with an empty house. He asked me what I wanted to do tomorrow and all I could think of was jobs around the house. I need to be more creative.

It's weird to think that I can just pack my kids in a car and let them drive 540 miles away all by themselves and know that they'll be fine. I'm a little anxious about the long drive, but they are good kids and seemed thrilled at the prospect of an independent road trip. I don't know if it is wise or macabre that I wrote down all the details of their outfits and took close-up photos of them (like I used to do whenever we visited a big tourist attraction or amusement part) before they left just in case there is an emergency, but I did and I feel better knowing I have that information.


Hopefully, they'll remember to take a few photos while they're with the family.