Family Time

As a family (minus our son and his family...sigh), we went north this weekend to see my biological father and his wife again before they head to Texas at the end of the month for the winter. Given that he's 81 and had heart surgery, a heart attack, and an infection of the heart last year and another heart attack this summer...I didn't want to miss a chance to see him again. You never know if tomorrow, let alone next year, will be there. Plus, he was anxious to spend more time with our daughter, meet her husband, and bond with her kids (who I think I'd previously explained will very likely be the only great-grands he will ever know).

My half-sister had hoped to travel to meet up with us, but Friday began with the bad news that she thought she was coming down with a cold and as a precaution had been tested for Covid. She didn't have the results but being tested meant staying home until she does. I shared with her that Leah was sad they wouldn't be meeting...

And tried to cheer her up with some silliness. Like a little girl wearing her Pappy's work hat.

But we were all still sad and my sister and I confessed to feeling like we wanted to throw temper tantrums over the unfairness. Ah well. It was for the best. My sister still doesn't have the results, but as it turned out, she felt even worse on Saturday so it's a good thing she didn't come. We don't want Dad to get any nasty germs, covid or not.

Saturday was a beautiful day, though very, very breezy. I wanted to take lots of pictures of the trees, which did get more colorful the further north we drove, but I forgot my camera and my phone doesn't take very good pictures. So, I am mostly dependent on the few pictures our daughter or her husband snapped.

I took a few shots on the drive up, but most were blurry so I ended up with only two to share.

This one is on I-79, probably around Mercer or Grove City, PA. So about halfway in our trip. 

This one is driving in on the road my dad lives off of. Yep, the small town my parents are from and where I spent a lot of childhood is the kind of place that rolls up the sidewalks at sundown and still has lots of dirt roads.

Colton was in a "mood" the whole trip up and we were worried he wasn't going to be pleasant at all once we got there. He is in what we are hoping is just a phase, of not really wanting to be around anyone but his parents and even with them, he only wants to be at home. It started a couple of weeks ago and we don't know if something happened to scare him (he has bad dreams now and then) or what.

Anyway, it was really slow going with him. He didn't want anything to do with my dad or his wife when we first got there. But Dad had a plan. He had bought a little fishing pole for Colton. He got out poles for all of us and when he saw us fishing in Dad's pond, Colt decided to join in. He liked reeling them in, but that was it. He was absolutely terrified of the actual fish. 

Fishing with Mommy.

Fishing with Pappy.

At some point his shoe needed tied and Colt went to my dad on his own for help. It took a bit of warming up, but here's the proof.

My dad couldn't have been any more tickled.

I don't have any shots of Leah. She was just a blur all day. She wore us out with her desire to dive head-first into the pond and we had to watch her every second. Dad also has a smaller pond in the front yard that is only a foot or two deep and is home to lots of frogs. Leah loved going over to it and walking around to make the frogs jump in the water. At one end of Dad's trailer there is a short but very steep hill. The kids spent a good bit of time rolling down it. Watching Leah on it about gave me a heart attack. But everyone survived without any injuries to report. Whew!

The bonfire was fun and we all got a chance to chat while we ate. Then Dad and Liz (his wife) took me and our daughter around and tried to give us all kinds of stuff (they are trying to get rid of a lot of things), some we accepted, some we didn't. We both came home with a big box full of antique canning jars with zinc lids. Megan also got a rusty old railroad lantern, but it's red glass globe is intact. I got a couple of old bottles and a meat grinder. Liz gave the kids a bag of Halloween figurines that had been her grandchildren's and she gave me a very nice tote bag, a set of new bath towels, a purse, and a few other little things. 

This is Dad's pond and the pretty color around it. Next weekend will probably be the peak for the leaves.

By the time we decided it was time to leave and get the kids to the hotel, Colton had warmed up enough to be laughing and joking and he even hugged Dad and Liz goodbye. Leah had really warmed up to Liz and spent the last bit of our time leading her around the yard. I am so glad the kids eventually opened up with them. It made their day. 

We had rooms right across from each other at the hotel and it was a free-for-all for a while there. We had picked up happy meals for the kids since they didn't eat too much at Dad's and it seemed to give them a second wind. 

Colton came to our room first and had a ball jumping on the king-sized bed and when the manager come to do something about our TV, he crawled under the covers and I joked with her about their terrible bedbug problem. She really laughed! 

Leah joined the party after her bath and she just ran back and forth and round and round squealing with glee. Then she discovered there was a full-length mirror on the bathroom door and another directly across from it on the wall. Talking to the other baby kept her busy for a good while. At least Mommy got to catch her breath before deciding it was time to tackle bedtime.

We were up and moving early yesterday and stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. YUM! We also shopped for thank-you gifts for my mom and a neighbor who took care of our pets while we were away. There wasn't much traffic at all and even with going to pick up Daisy, we made it home by 1:00. I unpacked, but otherwise we did NOTHING the rest of the day.

I'm just really glad we got to see Dad and Liz again before they head out to Texas and I'm glad we could give him this time with Megan and her family. I can't count on there being a next time, but I sure am grateful for whatever time I get with Dad since up until a year ago I thought I'd never know who he was, let alone get to spend time with him.