I live my life pretty tight in the budget area, which means despite being a grown-up and having a grown-up job, I work really hard to pay the bills (mostly stemming from the education that got me the grown-up job). There is not much left for fun, especially when like this year, my entire wardrobe pretty much hit the end of its useful lives and that’s not even counting how many pairs of shoes I’ll have to replace this year.
However, through the generosity of my family, I was able to take what would have been another staycation and travel to see family. I haven’t been back east in a couple of years, and those trips were could be categorized as “required” and not necessarily by choice and were accompanied by more drama and less relaxing. This year however, God blessed the financial situation and the trips themselves.
Trip 1 was with my mom to sherpa her bags (She has a bum shoulder/neck/back) and was to my hometown Gaylord, in Michigan to hang out with my Sanders grandparents and the various aunts, uncles, giant-tall-all-grown-up cousins, and babies that still live there. I was even able to see my only girl cousin on that side (Liza) for a couple hours! Now, I have Annie too, by marriage because she married Cole, Liza’s brother! Cole and Annie have the cutest little babies which just added to the fun!
Trip 2 was to Batesville, IN-the adopted hometown of my dad’s sister & brother in law, and now my Nussbaum grandparents. I also got to see a cousin (Jake) from that side too, although it was cousin-incomplete due to college and life schedules. I miss you Alix, Josh and Sam! The Indiana trip was crazy buzy, totally relaxed, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Aside from visiting family, each trip was completely distinct. In Michigan we did our visiting and catching up hanging out at my grandparent’s house and at the beach of a local state park. In Indiana, we did our visiting on the go, as we zipped from place to place “seeing the sights.”
There is no ranking one trip above the other, because they were both exactly what I needed. The drama of previous years was forgotten and everything could be described as QUALITY TIME.
The only thing that would have made each trip better would have been to see all the missing family members. But that’s the price we pay for growing up – we can’t all get time off at the same time!!!
Watch this same bat channel (no clue what bat time) for more stories as I sort through the pictures from both trips. And for those family members that I haven’t had a chance to visit yet, Chicago 2011 is still TBD!!!
