we headed to dickinson first to attend the beauitiful prayer service for a friends, Brian and Kelly Garr's mom, Roberta Senn, she put up a great fight against cancer, very similar to my Aunt Susan. obviously not the circumstances that you want to see friends, but was good to see them and others.
that weekend we headed to Fargo and visited Grandpa Don, the McLeans, and Aunt Donna and Dave and brother in law Elliot. The kids got to hit the pool and waterslide at the hotel. Then it was off to MN to a family gathering with the Aasen side. it was the 10th anniv. of the gathering but my first time attending. again able to see and visit with many aunts, uncles and cousins that i havent seen in too long. Eve and Gil enjoyed some new and old cousins and some outdoor winter activities at the lodge.
Upon returning from the east it was party time for Eve. She had quite the bday week, first at school on Firday, then Monday with grandparents, and finally again on Friday, the girls only party with cousins. Elsie, once again put on quite a show. while the girls were partying, gil and i did some boy shopping, he found a couple of new monster trucks. i learned how to play wii tennis and bowling, eve is a good teacher, and is also pretty competitive. i handed elsie a pretty brutal lesson on the tennis court, but she returned the favor in numerous games of bowling. i wanted to play until i won, but soon realized that we didnt have that much time. that was a tough pill to swallow.
during the final four days i watched eve and gil at gymnastics, dropped eve off at school a couple of times, went with gil to his school, took gil and visited todd and scott while they were at work, went sledding and fort building after some fresh snow fell, and watched numerous movies with kids, and in between all of that was able to spend time with elsie as she performed her favorite past times, house hunting and watching grey's anatomy. saying goodbye to all of those things doesnt get easier no matter how many times you do it. elsie dropped my off this morning and i am currently in germany waiting to continue.
as you can tell, even without plans, there was plenty to keep busy.
it was great to see everyone, although the time to visit never seems long enough. already looking forward to being home around august.
Take Care
Jay
1 comment:
Jay,
Sounds like you had a blast! I know Elsie was so excited to have you do her "everyday" activities with her! :)
It was great to see you, unfortunately under horrible circumstances. I know it meant a lot to the Garr's to have you there.
Take care in the next few months, you don't have too much longer left!
Thank you for serving our country! :)
Cass
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