Living 1,500 miles away at the other end of the country obviously means that I don’t get to visit home very often – I think I can actually count the number of trips that I’ve been home since moving away in 2003 on one hand:
- May 2005 (Lori’s High School Graduation)
- May 2006 (Lori’s Wedding)
- August 2006 (Sevener Family Luau)
- December 2008 (Grandma’s Funeral)
- August 2010 (Scott & Sara’s Amazing 2010 Summer Road Trip!!!)
Needless to say, it was a little exciting after four days of driving to finally see this sign on the horizon once again…
Nostalgia Overload
Since I’m not there very often, I tend to want to immerse myself in the nostalgia of my childhood from pretty much the moment I get there to the moment I leave – everything from the snacks that I used to eat that I can’t get down here (Made Rite BBQ Potato Chips) to the places that I loved to eat (BC Pizza, Mancinos Grinders) to even just gawking at all of the buildings and remarking at how some seem to change constantly while others really never change. At one point I took a drive and went past my old high school and elementary school – not much as changed at the former, but the later I noticed had to build a fence around its playground, which is kind of sad because without the fence the place is HUGE and I fondly remember spending a lot of time down there as a kid … mainly because it was literally at the end of our block. Sadly, they also replaced the famed curly slide that was all the rage when I went to school there, so I guess it’s like they say, you can never go back…
my Alma Mater for grades 1-5 – North Ohio Elementary School
Family Time
We pretty much spent most of the time just hanging out – one night we had pizza and played Wii over at Lori’s house (which has a singing fish!), one night we did a cookout at Mom’s house and even made s’mores afterwards (which you can see Voltron proudly guarding below), and we even got an evening to go up and spend a few hours with my Grandpa, which was nice because we haven’t seen him in a long time. Part of coming to visit always makes me sad because we can’t do it more often – I’d love to actually be able to attend the family Christmases that they do each year, even though it sounds like more and more of us out of towners aren’t able to make it, whereas when I was growing up it was a big deal because pretty much everyone was there and I got to see all of my cousins and stuff. Still, I really enjoy spending Christmas at my own house and there’s no snow to shovel for the three months on either side of the big day, so I suppose you have to take what you’ve got!
Defender of the Universe and so much more!
My Birthday, Part 1!
Ok, so my birthday technically wasn’t for another week, but it was fairly obvious that Mom was going to take full advantage of our visit to actually celebrate in the moment! We had cake and ice cream, Mom sang the song, and I even got to open a few presents! Although I’m still a bit skeptical about turning the big 3-0, let’s just say that Mom’s fudge frosting and some new LEGOs from Sara definitely helped to ease the transition…
Next Up: a day for Lisa…