This Little Chicken….
We’re on the road again and this little chicken has been nothing short of perfect on this trip, making friends along the way.
Her language is rapidly developing and the list of words and sounds that she makes has increased ten-fold. Animal noises are her speciality and she has been the life of the party at each and every event, the lone member of her generation.
Some of my dad’s cousins have young kids and she wants to get right in and play with them, mimicking their every move. She has discovered the goodness of mud puddles, mashed potatoes, donuts, graham crackers, popsicles, flowers, swimming pools, and whatever else the mid west has offered her little soul.
The one thing that I forget about Maggie sometimes is that she is a people person through and through. At a fancy anniversary celebration with more than 50 family members, she was more than happy to clap, point and cheese-ball smile for anybody and everybody. This has made dining out easy because she loves to stare down anybody that interests her.
I can’t express how much she amazes me and how much love I’ve got for her. Her curly, curly hair and her huge eyes invite people to dote upon her.
As our car rambles back towards home, one of her favorite things to do is to look at the photos of her papa and Sydney, kissing the pages and make barking sounds.
I’m a bit fearful that by the time we arrive on the doorsteps of HBHQ, Barry might not recognize us because Maggie has absorbed so much new information.
4 Gen ND Trip , MMM , travel
Tour De Devils Lake
Yesterday most us us piled into two cars and took a tour of Devils Lake with my grandparents leading the way. Since both my grandparents lived out of town growing up, they had to stay with other families during the week in order to attend school. We got to see the houses they stayed in and the houses of their friends, cousins, priests and aunts. My grandfather told us how he and a friend made it a goal to get to the rooftoop of each building in the small town, a feat nearly accomplished.
We learned that my grandparents had a master key to the high school and would go wander the hallways and look at the art work (or make out, as my grandpa puts it). I’ve learned that both my grandparents were highly involved in student government with my grandpa acting as student body president. The stories they tell are so intertwined and where one lacks detail, the other fills the space.
The tour included former schools, the cemetery and a museum that used to be the sheriff’s house. At the museum pictures of my great great grandparents hung on the wall memorializing my great great grandfather’s time as sherriff. The old telephone directory holds the names of family members long gone. The house in itself was where my grandparents got their lone wedding photo taken and my grandmother spent many, many days of her childhood running up and down the stairs.
We recreated the wedding picture and finagled ourself into the display portion of the museum. Today we head out to visit the farms were both my grandparents grew up. Quite frankly, we’re gearing up to battle HUGE mosquitos. Apparently mosquitoes and thunder storms are a way of life around here and since we’re all wearing the Devils Lake colors, we ought to get used to it
4 Gen ND Trip , family , Grandparents , travel
Midwest Style
When I was a kid and Spring Break, Winter Break or even Summer Break would arrive, our family would most often be ready to book-it out of town the instant school got out. Often times the back seat of the family mini-van would be taken out and converted into some type of bed or area to lounge on for the longish car trip ahead. With the car-top carrier over flowing with camping gear, stinky wet suits, surf/boogie boards and whatever else we thought we needed, I have no doubt that we looked like The Griswolds.
This most recent North Dakota trip has catapulted my family back to those days in a round-about way and it makes me acutely aware of how lucky I am to have a family that goes on vacations together. As much as I hated sharing a tent with my two stinky brothers all those years, I’m so grateful that we had parents that were willing to take us places and spend time with us. That is true today just as much as it was a couple decades ago.
Aside from the time that my dad made Phil and me walk through a lava field in Hawaii because we were fighting, I think I can say that my parents enjoyed seeing us grow up on those trips. This trip to North Dakota seems a bit like icing on the cake in terms of our nuclear family. We split off from the rest of the group the other day, taking more time to get to Devils Lake than the others.
We stopped for a couple hours in Old Jamestown and discovered that the fake cowboy town is actually a nice museum with a fantastic junk store. After we got our token picture taken at the world’s largest buffalo, we splintered off from one another and wandered the one-horse town, happily discovering a fantastic collection of things that make us happy: Phil, a real working print shop, my dad, a junk store that he nearly got lost in the button collection, my mom, goats and ducks to share with Maggie, and Izak leather belts and wallets. I was none too pleased to snap photos and listen to the twang of cowboys singing old tunes.
It wasn’t posing in front of the world’s largest buffalo, or even discovering Old Jamestown that reminded me those car trips of my childhood where we’d all be jam packed into the car headed for somewhere other than home. It was the time that we spent hours later, after arriving to our hotel in Devils Lake, splashing around in the pool, playing with the huge beach balls….cracking up with every spike off of somebody’s head.
You see, we’re a quirky bunch. Full of humor, color and lots of zest. And we like each other. We love each other and choose to spend time together when we can. This, I believe, makes our family unique.
For the second evening in a row, we took over the hotel pool, had loud races from one end to the other and a splash-filled volleyball game. I felt like I was 12 again, trying to do the same thing as my older brother, bossing around my younger brother, and wondering if my parent’s hands were as pruned as my own.
We’re not crammed into the same car this trip, and we certainly aren’t sharing a tent. Maggie’s arrival has slowed the pace down significantly, and we’re all delighted to appease her. I think most of all we’re feeling grateful for this time that we have to spend together, because once reality shows up again we’re all going to hit the floor running and late night pool parties and large buffalo pictures just aren’t the same in the middle of a work week.
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