A visit Home

If you aren't familiar with our children and grandchildren you can see them here.We had a wonderful, and very busy visit, with family in recent weeks.  On April 13, we left a relatively mild Denver International (about 55 degrees) and flew to Detroit for a four-day visit with my side of the family.   We went to breakfast with my dad at his favorite location - - El George's Coney Island - - and then I headed out to visit with my friends from Visteon.  When I arrived home from that visit, Steve was waiting for me with some bad news.  

Apparently, that morning his sister Bev took his mother to the hospital because she was experiencing severe pain in her hip/back and couldn't walk.  After she arrived, things went from bad to worse and she ended up staying in the hospital/rehab facility for two weeks.  Thankfully, she is home now but it was a little scary for a while there.

On the Saturday before Easter, my family (all my sisters, nieces and nephews, and brothers-in-law) went to Hamtramck to do a little "fowling".  Let me just say that this was a total blast.  If you know nothing about this sport, it is a combo football and bowling.  You have an alley, and a team at either end of the alley.  The object of the game is to throw the football to the other side of the alley and knock down 10 standard bowling pins.  This, my friends, is harder than you think it would be.  What complicates matters is that there are alleys on either side of you whose errant balls may knock over your pins.  I am probably not explaining it very well so here is a Youtube video that will help you understand it.  Anyway, we had a great time and topped it off with a trip to a great Polish restaurant for an early dinner.  Those of you in the Detroit area who are reading this, find a bunch of people and head down to Hamtramck to check it out.  The remainder of our time with my dad and my side of the family was spent enjoying Easter at my sister Julie's house.  She has a lovely house and always puts on a great party.  Very relaxing day.

The following morning, we headed to Asheville, North Carolina to visit with our son Terry and his wife Jill and daughter Sofia.  Steve and I were wondering if she would remember us from our last visit there in September/October of 2016 and boy were we pleasantly surprised.  She instantly knew who we were and it was exciting to see how happy she was to see us.  She turned 2 just a couple of weeks ago so she has been adding to her vocabulary and lately has decided to call Steve "Pa" and she calls me "Debbie" (a 2-year-old's version of "Grammy").  We had a great visit and got to spend a lot of play time with her and visit with Terry and Jill.

From North Carolina, we headed south to Port Charlotte, Florida.  We needed to make some decisions about our house and the work that needs to be done to it.  Additionally, we made the determination to sell our house when the tenant's lease is up.  Our desire is to become snowbirds for 6 months and then travel to our children for 6 months, so we decided that having a condo was a better housing option for us.  We went to see the production of "Moses" in Wauchula with our dear friends, Paul and Annette Neumann, stopped by First Alliance and said "hi" to some of the staff, and were able to see our friend Cindy Salvanorich as well, but that was about all we could do with the short amount of time we were in town.

From there we flew back to North Carolina, had dinner with Terry, Jill and Sofia, and then drove up to Toledo to see our daughter, Jill, her fiance Paul, and our grandchildren. We watched the NFL draft at their house and left scratching our heads on the Cleveland Browns, but hey, why should this year be any different than previous years?  We also had the opportunity to see our granddaughter, Kendra, play softball. She's quite the good catcher and we even got to see her slide into home plate for a run!  Lastly, we were able to celebrate Connie's 84th birthday and see all of Steve's siblings.

Finally, our visit came to an end and we headed back to Denver to spend some time with our son Steve and his wife Aime and son Tytus.  When we arrived, Denver was in the throws of a very terrible snow storm. It was so cold and windy and we were not prepared for that weather at all.  That didn't deter us from having a great time with our newest grandchild who is just adorable.

If you aren't familiar with our children and grandchildren you can see them here.

It's always great to spend time with family and sad to leave them behind.  When we return from our trip, we begin our Pacific Northwest tour with a stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming and then up north to South Dakota, over to Montana, west to Idaho, then on to Oregon, Washington, and then heading back east through Glacier National Park, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and then through the UP of Michigan and finally, back to visiting family in Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina.  We will be flying to Colorado for Tytus' first birthday in September as well.  Last stop, Port Charlotte and the search for a new condo.

It's going to be a busy year!!!!!

Later guys,

Lauren (and Steve too)