We are on countdown. Vacation begins today. This is a big deal.. We have been gone overnight one time in the last year and a half. For one night. We really are tied down - between animals, vegetables, and ailing in-laws, we just never manage to go far or long. This week will be the exception.
When I was a little older than Bell, maybe 10, my great aunt and uncle began an annual tradition of renting a cabin at Grand Lake of the Cherokees for them and their three grandchildren. Their granddaughters were my only girl cousins and I made the missing stair step between the the girls who were a bit younger than me and their brother who was a bit older than me; Aunt Pauline made me one of the Grand Lake gang, ensuring that I became close with these cousins I often saw only that one week a year while Uncle Bob dutifully drug us around the lake until we all learned to ski, half drowning our sunburned selves. Don't fall over in amazement, but I even learned to slolem. How, I do not know since it was without glasses or contacts. Once we were grown, it became an every other year event and then since Bell was about two, it was abandoned as Bob and Pauline's health failed and they left us forever. Last fall, their daughter organized the revival of Wilsons at Grand a Lake, quite a feat since she lives in Colorado, and now that week is here.
This year will be the first time we have gone and stayed at the lake since I was just a few weeks pregnant with Bell. Then, I had no idea I was pregnant as I skied and jumped off a roof into the lake and drank Mike's hard lemonade. Crazy me. I am past caring if I ski or not, and I would never be brave enough to jump off a roof now, but I am so excited to see my cousins. The last few times we have seen them have mostly been funerals - not the best of circumstances. I am ready to sit with Chelsea and Mo in the sun and laugh with them. I hope to hear the generation older than me tell family stories. Hopefully, my grandparents will be out one night - my grandpa is just about the last keeper of Wilson lore. I am excited for Bell to meet cousins she doesn't even know she has. I know there is one just a bit and one just a bit younger . . . The next generation connecting and finding roots.
We haven't had an auspicious beginning. Jack was supposed to work until Sunday, but because of a confusion, got sent home early Friday so the next pay day won't be pretty. We thought about heading up early to see some of the family who were there only for the weekend and leaving today, but we weren't organized enough for an early departure and there was work that his dad needed done. Saturday just at dusk, the hydrant outside just broke off and we suddenly had a major water leak. The pipe was so corroded (remember, we live in Jack's grandparents' house), he wasn't sure he could fix it. I prayed. He dug and sawed pipes and managed to get it fixed. If we had left early and that had happened while we were gone . . . Sunday was making sure the line held, dealing with the garden and the forerunners of an army bug onslaught, packing. All that pre-trip stuff.
So. Departure. Pumpkins need a last drink. The car needs packed. The kid needs to get moving. When we come home, summer will be over for us. I will have more AP stuff and school will start. But that is when we come home. For now, it will be a road trip with Broadway show tunes, fun in the sun, cousins galore, too much food, forgetting about my fitness pal, family time, vacation time.
No comments:
Post a Comment