Home Again!

Oh!  My girlies are home at last!  I actually didn't realize how much I missed them until I saw them again; I am so glad they're home!  

Here are my grandpa's final thoughts from their trip - I cried.  =)

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Well, the end has come.  All too soon for GiGi and me, and maybe even for the girls.  There is that little matter of a 900 mile drive to bring them home.  (Thank you, Sena, for offering to meet us halfway!)  But there won't be anymore "What are we going to do next?" for a while.  Starting tomorrow, when we pick up the living room it will just sit there and stay that way.  For a day or so, that will seem nice.  But it won't be long before GiGi and Beepa (or Buppba) will be missing LIFE that we have had throughout the house this week.

I guess I could use this last email to tell you about the day's events.  Starting with the elderly shut-ins the girls brought a smile to as we delivered their Meals On Wheels.  Then the visit to the Zoo.  And on to the Carousel ride.  Or the company we had this morning, Chris and Michael and, later today, Eileen and Ollie, our neighbors from down the street.

But I think I would like to close these emails with a couple of thoughts that, hopefully, will still be around long after the memory of this week has faded.  First, and most importantly, I want to give thanks for our family.  We all are so fortunate to have been given the physical ability, the resources, and perhaps most importantly, the desire to be so close to each other.  It could be otherwise.  Any one of us, young or old, could have been made unable to enjoy a week like the past one.  And any one of us could have chosen not to want to have such a week.  There would be nothing that any of the rest of the family could do about that.  And so, I hope that none of us take the past week for granted, and that we all remember that it was a family, not just Beepa and GiGi, who made it happen.

And to the girls, Katie and Julia, we hope that our week together will become part of who you are - and who you will become.  Someday, you may have a family of your own - maybe a family as wonderful as ours has been.  Partly that will be up to you.  And when you become a good Mommy, Grandma, and someday even a Great-Grandma, GiGi and Beepa hope you will remember us and the fun we had together back in September 2008.

Love, GiGi and Beepa