Family vacation...

On May 4^th I will be taking my first “NEW” family vacation, I can hardly wait!  So many NEW memories to be made!  It is as if I have waited for this moment my entire lifetime. 

Michael and Cindy are picking me up bright and early, actually let me rephrase that, dark and early, so early it will still be dark outside.  We are driving to Grand Junction, Colorado.  Our intention is to arrive at the airport in Colorado in time to pick up Mary at 4pm on 5/5.  We will pick up Mary, enjoy the evening together and then the actual nature vacation will begin on 5/6.  We are going to state parks in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming together just the four of us.  Mary’s husband is staying home so that we can bond better.  I have yet to meet John, Mary’s husband; I have spoken to him on the telephone.  Mary and John are coming into town in September for one week; I will get to meet John then. 

The four of us will be together until 5/14 when Mary will depart to go back to her home.   Michael, Cindy and I will travel through Nebraska onto Iowa to meet our Mother’s only surviving sister, Viola.  Viola is 85; I am looking so forward to meeting her.  I am hoping Viola can tell me all about Dorothy as a child, as I want to know everything there is to know about my Mother.

We are planning on arriving home on 5/18 or 5/19.  I am hoping the time together goes slowly; I will be taking in and savoring every second of each day.  After all we have a lot of catching up to do.

Other than checking in by telephone to see how my parents are doing I will be completely disconnected from my life at home, I don’t want anything to detract me from my family.  So often I am out and I see families at a table dining and they are all connected to their phone texting others.  When I am with my parents, I am with them 100%.  When I am with my friends I am with them 100%, when I am with my “new” family I will be with them 100%.  I am counting the days, as of today there are 17 more days to go before I leave for my “first”  “NEW” family vacation.  I have been told this will be a yearly adventure.  We are already tossing ideas around for next May.  Can you see my SMILE?