Right before leaving we had lunch with JJ. While in the car we got into a conversation where he asked if I wanted to leave Olivia with him and I immediately thought sure, "one less child to worry." Then it dawned on me that Olivia and the rest of the kids hadn't seen Grandpa since the "boys" went snowboarding in Big Bear. This had been in the winter and now it's just about summer. This made me sad. Why is it that even though it's family we don't made an effort to see each other? Why does it take months for my kids to see our family? The drive to Grandpa's is less than two hours.
I know that when I'm older and my kids have kids I'll want to be with them all the time. To me family is very special and one of the most treasured relationships. I want my children to feel the same way. Thus whatever my children see as models for family relationships is exactly what they will view as "normal". So if we only see grandpa or any other family member every few years, or months it will be reciprocated back to us as we are grandparents. Just thinking about this made my heart ache.
I vowed to myself that even though we are the ones with the young children that we are going to make much more of an effort to spend time with our family. I want my children to cultivate special memories with our family that they can cherish and pass on to their kids.
The children had a blast a grandpas. They loved the attention they received from Grandpa, Angela and Jonathan. Olivia's favorite moment was going to the park and sliding down the big slide with Uncle Jonathan. Kaleb loved messing around with his Uncle J too and having Grandpa (dote) watch him skate during the competition. Nathaniel loved drumming with Jonathan. And I loved chatting with "dad" and eating all the delicious food Angela made for us.
All these special memories were so worth the drive!
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