That there's my father-in-law, Papa Choo-Choo. Bubbe and Papa Choo-Choo live walking distance to train tracks that have actual trains running. (As opposed to our tracks that are pretty much all converted to walking/bike riding trails.) They came for a visit last weekend. It is with mixed emotions that I write this post.
C and I married in late June 2005. Our invitation read "Celebrate the day we begin an adventure of a lifetime." We closed on the selling our condo July 5 and headed to my dad's house for a day or two. C's parent's met us there and we all celebrated by eating the top of our wedding cake rather than freezing it for a year. The next day we left Illinois and headed for Washington in one of our cars with our two and half year old dog, Abbey. All our belongings would meet us in Seattle.
We both had jobs waiting for us in the fall and it was a dream come true to move. The Queen was already living in Seattle as was my be-fri from college, Carolyn. Here we are over six years later. My mom, moved here over three years ago and my dad bought a condo here a year ago and spends about 1/4 of his time here. The Queen is married with two little girls and a third on the way. We have Z-man. Abbey just turned 9. Yikes!
C's parents and siblings are in Chicagoland with the exception of Uncle Ed and Aunt Katherine in Georgia. We always have such a great time together and Z just LOVES his time with them. What I'm trying to say is I wish we had more time together. I wish we lived ten minutes apart like my mom, dad, and sister. Sometimes you make choices in life and you are happy with them but that doesn't mean it is perfect. Am I even making any sense? I'm a lucky girl to love and be loved by my in-laws. They welcomed me as part of the family from day one. I didn't want them to leave.
How it went down was Papa Choo-Choo made a pizza with Z-Man. It was one of the most memorable Sunday Pizzas to date. It has been nearly a year of pizza making for Z. He had a blast showing Grandpa what to do. Grandpa had a blast being told what to do.
The pizzas came out. We ate them. The loving grandparents oohed and ahhed at how amazing our pizza tasted. Guess what? It was completely doughy. Like cake-like doughy weird. Every bite one of us would say, "Honestly, it is normally much crunchier." "Hmmm I'm not really sure what happened."
The next day we were going to make a take-and-bake pizza for the pre-trick-or-treat party when we realized the lower heating element in our oven was blown. OH! So only the top element was cooking the pizza. That explains it. Phew. We ordered the part. It came today and C put it in and the oven is back in business.
What a relief. It may not have been our best pizza to date but it was a wonderful end to a wonderful weekend with my wonderful in-laws.
The pictures are so wonderful--especially the first one! You expressed your mixed sentiments so beautifully. I feel the same way. I wish they lived five minutes away, like we Silvers all do. They have too many commitments to keep them in Chicago and now we have to many commitments to leave easily.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful sentiments, my dear niece! I wish we lived closer, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mom and Aunt Susan! Wish you were closer too! The web helps though.
ReplyDeleteSweet pictures and sweet text.
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