Today is it raining. Again. It rained on Saturday when we flew in. It rained yesterday, through our trip to the Science Center. And today it is raining again. It’s hard enough to think of a day’s worth of fun activities for toddlers without throwing rain into the mix. Everything that comes to mind has to be put off for (hopefully) better weather. Trip to Old Sturbridge Village? Delayed. Trip to see the Quabbin or the dam? Not today. Even a walk around the block must be put off, at least until the showers ease a little. It’s tough when Grandma doesn’t own a dryer and it’s too damp for your jeans to dry properly. It limits the things you can do in the rain that insists on falling from the sky.
This morning’s activities weren’t bothered by the rain, at least. We visited my Auntie Cheryl’s house for brunch. My extended family is all very close. My mom is one of seven and I was always close to my aunts and uncles and the hordes of cousins. We were particularly close with my Auntie Cheryl and Uncle Teddy’s family. My cousin Shayne would often spend the afternoon and many, many, many nights at our house, and my brother would spend just as much time at their house playing with our cousin Kene. It worked out very well.
The timing this week worked out just as well; after Kim and I bought our plane tickets, we emailed Shayne (who is working on her PhD in Ohio right now) to see if there was any way she could swing a visit when we would be home. As luck would have it, she planned on being home for a conference the same week we were. The angels sang and there were hearts and unicorns and it was lovely. So that’s how we ended up over at Auntie Cheryl’s house for brunch this morning. The girls played with every toy Auntie Cheryl could pull out, we were able to visit with Auntie Cheryl and Nana (her mom), and Kim and Rhi and I got to catch up with Shayne. Even my other cousin Hillary was able to come over for our Ladies’ Bruncheon. It was lovely.
[As a completely unrelated aside, my youngest sister just came upstairs to ask me if I wanted more coffee. She took my empty mug and went to fix me some more. And then she brought it back upstairs to me. I pink puffy heart vacation.]
The very favorite part of my visit – aside from the heaping platefuls of good food and showing off my girlies – was being plied for embarrassing stories by Shayne’s friend Jill. Shayne’s friend and another colleague were staying with her
this week. They were both sweet and fun and talkative (must-haves) and asked us to spill our guts about our youthful hijinks (super-bonus). We talked about playing Barbie fashion shows, and how my mom (the judge) would never pick the Barbie with wrinkly clothes, so we would actually iron our Barbie clothes. And Shayne brought out pictures of the three of us from Halloween. And we talked about how Kim and I would try to hide Shayne as a stowaway when we used to visit, and one time we made it to the top of her street. We didn’t know what to do – we had always tried to hide her and we had finally done it! But Mom would be so mad if she had to drive her all the way back home…
Fun times, fun times. I already can’t wait to see everyone again! And now that I’ve cheered myself back up, I’m going to peek out the window and see what we can do about this rain…
June 22, 2009 at 8:05 pm |
Glad that you made it to MA in one piece.
I loved the comment about hearing people downstairs, it brings back great memories of a heat register in my room. My sister, cousins and I would sit by it listening while the adults partied downstairs.
Enjoy friends and family and forget about the rain. Just remember if the give you lemons make lemonade; if they give you rain make mud pies. The girls will love it.
June 23, 2009 at 7:30 am |
Sorry to hear about all the rain, but it should let up soon. You are probably about a day behind Michigan weather wise and we had 3 days of rain last week, Wed., Thurs., Fri., so you should be clear, hot and sunny soon.
Sounds like you are having a great time despite the weather. Keep enjoying!
June 24, 2009 at 2:35 pm |
Yeah, the Northeast isn’t the place to be for good weather this June. But, the family visit sounds wonderful!
July 2, 2009 at 7:36 am |
[...] hanging out in my room. We ate Niko’s, visited childhood haunts, toured my alma mater, and hung out with family. We even made a day trip up to Weirs Beach, where we used to vacation as [...]