Sunday morning Ian woke us up quite early, especially for him. He clearly had not adjusted to being in the Central time zone. We had a fun breakfast spread around the dining room table while the squirrels and birds enjoyed their morning repast.
After playing (read: destroying) around Gramma’s house for an hour we packed the kids in the van to drive to Cadiz. We planned to have lunch with Brett and Elizabeth- one of the boy’s sets of godparents, and their kids. Autumn is a first grader like Ethan. Sam turned a year old on January 12th.
Ian and Sam actually had fun together. Sam would throw items from the Cracker Barrel table onto the floor and Ian would dutifully pick them up. Sam found this to be a grand game. He rewarded Ian with slightly gummed cheerios. Meanwhile Ethan and Autumn talked about school, books, gym class and their favorite video games. The adults quickly settled into our old comfort zones, teasing and giggling together.
Even though we spent over two hours eating lunch and then playing checkers outside (in the biting cold wind) the visit was far too short. Autumn is a beautiful child who ate even more than Ethan- and that’s a pretty spectacular feat. Sam is a chubby adorable little man who quite obviously basks in all the love and attention he gets. He deserves every single bit, though! I could spend a lifetime just hanging out and chatting with Elizabeth. Despite the physical distances and the changes of the years, we have more in common now than we had before. And, of course, Brett is great fun and very much a goofy brother figure. It is no wonder that we let the kids call them Aunt and Uncle.
Sadly, we forgot the camera- so no pictures.
Back at the lake, Mark took the boys on a walk to the shore while Mamma and I visited the cemetery. I had not been back since Adrian’s funeral. Since it may be a year or two before I visit again, I felt I needed to stop by. His headstone is perfect. The inscription, a line from Edgar Allen Poe’s “El Dorado” is entirely appropriate and makes me cry thinking about it.
For dinner we had roast beef with all the fixings. It was mouth-wateringly delicious, as only Gramma’s cooking can be. There were two types of pie for desert: lemon meringue (no dairy-, no that it mattered because Ian refused to try a bite.) and chocolate. Dianne brought over her kids and her three new foster kids. The house was full of boys and laughter. It felt good to have happy voices in the house again. I fondly remember that house being filled with shrieks, giggles, running feat, parachuting Barbie dolls, lake-wet kids and the sounds of sporting events on TV.
We all slept well that night.
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