Staying in the Moment

Our Sweet Kids

Back at Laura and Robert's home, it became apparent that our trip was coming to an end. How do we thank our kids for making this time so special and memorable for all of us? Laura and Robert planned everything so well. (I think this was one of those defining moments where the parents and kids traded places!) They took such wonderful care of us and all the details. The time seemed to fly by with so many wonderful places to go and see and what seemed like unlimited time to visit and just be together. You know how that goes! It suddenly hits you like a ton of bricks.....the wonderful carriage you have been riding in is about to turn back into a pumpkin.

I find it fascinating how time gets so distorted when you are traveling. Half the time I had no idea what day it even was. It didn't really matter as we had the luxury of devoting 100% of our time to just focusing on the moment. On the one hand, it seemed like forever ago that we got stranded in Munich overnight by missing our connecting flight and at the same time I wonder how the time went so quickly.

The last week of our month long vacation saw moments where the concerns of everyday life at home started to creep into our thought patterns once again. Work, the bathroom remodel, commitments, the projects and other things that people were relying on us to do, etc. etc. were dancing in our heads once again. The perpetual 'to do' at home started to rear its ugly head and that can be distracting when you are trying to enjoy and savor every last minute of where you are.

Ross 7 1/2 and Spencer 10 1/2

On Monday and Tuesday of our last week we were able to send Laura and Robert off to their over night get away in Gaeta. This gave us a perfect opportunity to be with our little grandsons and to savor moments with them. There was just something so magical about being with these two sweet boys. Grandparenting just simply must be experienced to be understood. Who knew we had this kind of love within us until we had felt it? It was so neat to have this one on one time with them while Mom and Dad enjoyed some time alone.

Spencer and Ross are polar opposites in many ways and yet identical in how much they are loved. They are smart, funny, full of life and such good boys. Honestly, they gave us no problems the entire month. I think we were stuffing down the melancholy at the prospects of not seeing them for another undetermined amount of time, most of our last few days there. When Robert and Laura returned we had only 2 days left.

Even though we had a lot of busy work to do in getting packed up, preparing a box to mail home, etc. we managed to thoroughly enjoy both of those days. But in the back of my mind the saying good bye was taking up more and more space. I fought it but could not deny it. It was very hard to stay right in the present and not think about being part again. Because in spite of all the time and fun we had...I think families are meant to be together and when we are not....something always seems just a little off. I have come to know that for me personally, I will never get use to it. But like so many things in this life you just push through it, do the best you can and find creative ways to make it as good as you can under the circumstances.

One nice thing about living apart is that it never becomes routine when we do have time together. Each moment is cherished and that is one reason why I have spent so many hours writing about what we have done. I think I have captured the highlights that will remind us of all of it. I want to have a blog book made of this time in Italy for us, for them and for Jim's mom. How often do four generations have vacation time together anyway?

We have been home six days now and I am eager to get back to blogging in the 'actual moment' but I have just a few more posts to do about Italy. We took so many photos and it has been a chore to go through and edit them but it has been worth it. Digital cameras have got to be one of the best invention of the century! And blogging, what a wonderful way to preserve memories in a timely way. I cannot think of a better way to stay in the moment while savoring it and saving it forever. I appreciate the patience of you, my readers, and I hope I haven't lost a lot of you along this journey in our family history. Normalcy~ coming soon!