life and death and everything in between

Memorial Day weekend ran quite the gamut of emotions and experiences.

It started on a high note, that Friday was Travis's birthday! 35 years young. We gave him one present in the morning, and another over our Sonic dinner.  :-)  Boy loves Sonic, and we never go there, so I figured, why not? That celebration went right along with the early celebration for my goddaughter, Casey's, birthday on Saturday. To top it off, Ethan and Elise arrived on Saturday as well, and we grilled steak. Very good things.

Sunday was a slightly different story. On Sunday, Ethan, Elise, and myself piled into my car and headed north. While Trav and Gwen enjoyed tennis, the three of us went to gather with my family to inter my Gram's ashes.

Grief is such a funny thing, it ebbs and flows and rises and falls. It is hard and heavy and sometimes beautiful. Here's the thing, it was not necessarily a sad day. As my Gram would have wanted, we relished in each others company. Its not all that often that we get to gather en masse, and we did our best to make the most of it. I had the most amazing time getting to know my cousin's fiance, who is one fun guy!

While it did remind me of just how much I miss her - and man, I do miss her - it also reminded me of how fun my extended family is!

Monday we made the most of our bonus day and headed a park about an hour away from our place, to meet and visit with a friend (Elise), her wife, and three kiddos, who were down from Connecticut. 

Gwen was shy for about 5 minutes, then we were good to go.

The weather was gorgeous, and the park was great. We picked up food from the local orchard market, enjoyed a picnic lunch, then explored the rocks, woods, and lake.

Its always so wonderful to see one of my momspirations, and all around favorite people, in person!

After that it was time to head home, cook up some dinner, and get everyone to bed early!
It was a long, full, tiring, awesome weekend. I need another to recover.  :-)