Goodbye, Grandparents…sniff, sniff

Jill's Journal: My Dad riding off into the sunset…or at least back to his peaceful, quiet life. :)

Yesterday we bid farewell to my Mom and Dad after six weeks (!) of slumming it on their yard. What a precious time that was and one we’re always going to look back on with joyous memories. The girls really got to know their Grandpa and Beppy, which is an incredible gift in itself, and spent hours upon hours upon hours playing with them and around them. They took special pride in finishing school for the day and being able to skip across the driveway all by themselves to ring the doorbell and go to their grandparents’ house. Grandpa and Beppy always welcomed them with hugs and toys and often Beppy’s famous homemade cookies. No wonder the girls were so sad to leave! As we drove away, Madelyn especially kept commenting, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we lived with them?”

Sorry, kiddo, you’re stuck with me and Rob. My apologies.

And that time with my parents wasn’t just magical for the girls…it was special for me too!

How I will miss a full-size washing machine.

And unlimited long, hot showers.

And childcare.

And dinner every night (this might have been the best part…will I even remember how to cook? Do I want to remember how to cook?)

And afternoon glasses of wine and all the ensuing giggles.

Oh yes, they spoiled us rotten in every way imaginable. It went above hospitality; it was a little dose of heaven. I almost got to be a kid again. Now I have to go back to the world of responsibility and adulthood. It’s going to be a harsh reentrance into reality!

On our last evening, we all went out for one last little adventure: dinner at a Native American BBQ place in Tehachapi. Our table was out in a teepee until the cold got a little too intense and we moved inside…but what fun! And the next day, we were sent off with a hearty breakfast that included heart-shaped waffles. The girls are going to find life so dull away from Grandpa and Beppy’s…I mean, really, how can I compete with teepees and heart-shaped waffles?

We miss you already, Mom and Dad. Love you both. Thank you so much for an amazing, amazing time.

I have to say that there’s another thing I really enjoyed: just being around for the little, day-to-day things of my parents’ lives. It’s just a few months shy of 20 years since I left home and it was a special treat to be privy to their lives again. Without that, I probably never would have seen the below picture, taken of my Dad in the mid-1960s while in the service in South Korea. An old army buddy just sent it to him a week or two ago and it likely would have disappeared for all posterity if I hadn’t sneaked it away and scanned it in. He’s going to kill me for putting it up here, but I’m out of arm’s reach now! My Dad doesn’t play the guitar (that I know of) and he doesn’t run around in flip-flops (that I know of) (or his skivvies...that I know of), so it really cracked me up. I loved it actually. What a handsome devil! Elvis had nothing on Arden.