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Monday, August 15, 2011

Our lil family getaway

Last Friday morning Luke, Will and I piled ourselves and all of our crap endless amount of baby supplies in the car. It is amazing how much stuff you need for a 4 1/2 hour car ride and one and a half days away! I hadn't been to my grandparents in Kankee Illinois since Will's been born and since my grandma passed. It was a hard trip to make, hard to see their house without her, hard to not hear her in the kitchen cooking, hard to see all the beautiful flowers she had planted, hard BUT good to see her pictures everywhere, hard to see plants from her services I could not make it to, and hard to see the extreme amount of hurt in my sweet grandfathers eyes. They were soul mates, whether or not you believe in that sort of thing, that is what they were. They never spent a day apart, nope not in their 60 years of marriage. They made each other laugh and loved each other the amazing way a couple should. Ive learned so much from them, and now I am learning how to grieve and keep calm and carry.on... a lesson that is taking me a while to get used to.

Will did great on his first road trip, he slept a little then I climbed in the back and we read books and made each other laugh for the remainder of the trip, till we got lost then we got restless, those country roads with no street names can be hard to navigate! We got in and settled and then met most of the family out at a local pizza place in town, we have went back and forth on the idea of going to see where grandma ad is. Since we missed her services and things like that I have had a very hard time accepting that she is gone, and just realizing it in general. Her not being at home was a good realization for me and seeing the emptiness in grandpas eyes but I still needed that closure. Crystal was not sure if she wanted to go. After talking with one of our cousins she told us that grandpa goes there all the time to see her, so we decided after dinner to go with him. I thought I would be a wreck, commercials get me choked up... but it was calm. It was peaceful. And it needed to be done. I am not going to go into detail about our visit there because it was very personal, but putting one foot in front of the other when we got out of the car, was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. But I left there knowing something I didn't before...
Grandma Ad is happy now, she is safe, and she is watching down on all of us.

Afterwards we went back to grandpas house to play a game of dominos, something we all always love to do together! So the kids went to bed and we stayed up laughing and playing.
The next day my grandpa had everyone over to visit, there was a TON of food and fun. I loved seeing all the kids play together, the way I used to when we would go visit in the summers. That morning we even went and picked our own corn for our cookout. It couldn't of been a more perfect weekend, and I vow to do that every year, no matter who is there...we will be there visiting I felt Grandma Ad smiling at me that weekend and there is just no better feeling.
Some pictures of our weekend:
 
Grandpa Bill picking flowers with Bennett and Kate
Will
Next year he will be running away from me!
Corn.Corn.Corn as far as the eye can see!
Riverdale Farm
Will's first ride on a john deere!
my big boy driving

Bennett picking "popcorn" he ate it right off the cob, 2 ears!
some slip and slide fun
Pierce
All the Nottke Great Grandkids
Drew, Kate, Kira, Pierce, Bennett, Addison, and William
William and cousin Chad
Lovin from Kate and Leslie
Tired boy tuckered out after a super fun weekend with an awesome family!

1 comment:

  1. Oh Ashley, this has me weeping at my desk. I love y'all and am so happy you got the closure that you needed. It is so hard to lose those special grandma's:(

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