RIP "Big Grandpa"

Last week, we lost my grandfather at the age of 90.  We were all saddened by his death, but the fact that he had lived to the age of 90 made the burden a bit easier to bear.  He gave life everything he had, and he lived a long and full life.  Having lost my Nana almost 3 years ago, I think it gave us all peace to think of him joining her in eternal life.  Death has a way of bringing family together, and this was no different.  It was really nice to be with my entire extended family for a couple of days, catching up on old times and just enjoying being a family.

The hardest part of losing my grandfather was that Ryan had gotten to know him over the past 5+ years during our visits to Massachusetts.  He was saddened by his death, and the night before the funeral, I found him crying, saying that he missed "Big Grandpa."  I comforted him for a bit and told him he didn't have to come to the funeral, but he said through tears that he wanted to hear my "speech." (I was tasked with writing and delivering the eulogy, as I had done for my Nana as well)  He asked if I could give the speech at the lunch after the service instead.  I explained that wasn't possible, but that we could just see how he felt in the morning.

The morning of the service, Ryan woke up in a great mood, insisting that he not only wanted to come to the wake/funeral, but that he wanted to help deliver part of the speech, a small part that he had helped me write.  Of course that was not possible either, but I felt better about his positive attitude.  Tim brought him to the funeral home shortly before the service, and I was very proud of his behavior.  He asked a few difficult questions that I hadn't anticipated - When he saw the body in the casket, he asked "Why is Big Grandpa here?  I thought he was in heaven?"  Then again he asked "I don't get it - how is his spirit alive if he isn't?"  All in all though, it went well, and I think he enjoyed being a part of it.

After a short but nice service, and a beautiful military burial at a local cemetery, we headed off for the luncheon, where we were joined by many other relatives and friends of the family.  Ryan truly enjoyed this portion of the day.  I set up a place next to me for him, but he quickly told me he wanted to sit at the "kids table."  The "kids" he referred to are my cousins, and they range in age from 18 to late 20's - far from kids!  But he sat with them, and I kept looking over to see him with the biggest smile on his face, chatting away with them as if he were their peer.  It was a sad occasion that brought us together, but it really was a great afternoon.  As we wrapped up lunch, I overhead Ryan walking around, inviting several family members back to my parents house after!  A few did come back, and we had some more laughs and more quality time together.

We will all miss my Grandfather, but to see the legacy he and my Nana left behind is just beautiful, and gives me comfort.

The Whole Family!

Cousins

 Siblings

Ryan at the "kids" table

Ryan with his big cousins

Catching up...again....

I miss blogging.  I miss having an online diary to go back and look at to remember what our lives were like on a particular day 1, 2 or 3 years ago.  I miss re-reading it and seeing all of the amazingly hilarious quotes coming out of Ryan's mouth, and I miss having a place to document those quotes.  So I am going to attempt to blog again.  I'm not going to try and make up for all of the life events I missed during my blogging hiatus, but you may see some posts here and there documenting events or stories from 12 + months ago...For now I'm just going to start posting and see where it leads me.  To all 3 of you that read my blog - Hello again :)

First Day of Kindergarten

How did we get here??  Today was a very special day in our household - Ryan's first day of Kindergarten!  Oh, and it also fell on my birthday, making it more special for me.  Leading up to the day, I said over and over that the absolute best present would be an amazing first day for Ryan.  And it could not have gone better.  Leading up to the day, he was a bit sad about leaving his old childcare center.  He was definitely excited for Kindergarten, but he wanted to continue Before/After care at the center he had spent the previous year at.  For many reasons, it made more sense to send him to the before/after care located right at the school, run by Howard County Parks and Recs.  This morning, he got up in a great mood, ate a special "first day of school" breakfast, posed for pictures, all the while asking "Can we leave now? can we go?  when are we leaving?"  Tim and I both joined him for Day 1 drop off, thinking it may be difficult.  The only thing that went wrong was that we went in the wrong door, which actually led for some great photo opps of Ryan walking down the hallway all by himself...looking way too old and confident for  5 year old headed off to a new school.  The only tears shed were by me...tears of pride and a tinge of sadness that my little guy is growing up....

Livin Life

A couple of weeks ago we were riding in the car and Ryan asked me what I liked most about life.  I wasn't really sure how to answer - There are so many great things about our life, but I was also curious what his thoughts were, so i turned the question back around to him and asked him what HE liked most about life. he thought for a moment and then said "I just like that I get to live it."

Heaven

Recently Ryan has been asking a lot of questions about God, and heaven.  These concepts are difficult for adults to comprehend, and I find it even hard to explain to him.  "What does she look like? (He thinks God is a woman!) What does Heaven look like?  What do you do there?"  He fired a bunch of questions at me and I did my best to answer them.  he thought for a minute, and then ended the conversation with  "I hope Big Nana gets to meet God."  I just looked at him and said in a shaky voice "I hope so too, Bud."

Saying goodbye to the Sagamore

I never like saying goodbye, and this time it was especially hard. We had an AMAZING time at the Sagamore with my family. The hotel is wonderful, and the staff took such great care of us. I am so proud of my brother and all he has accomplished in South Beach, and of course we don't mind reaping the benefits! In all seriousness though, they treated us like gold and we are so appreciative of their generosity. And all of us being together is something that doesn't happen too often, so we enjoyed every second! Of course some more pictures were taken before we left!

 

Date night!

For Ryan and Nana...

and me and Tim!



Just relaxing in Miami

Just add lemonade...

Tonight we all went to watch the Red Sox take on the Miami Marlins.  I wasn't sure how Ryan would do at the game, considering it was a 7:30 PM start and we have been playing in the ocean and pool for a couple days so I expected him to be more tired than usual.  I didn't need to worry - One giant lemonade seemed to erase any signs of fatigue and he actually lasted the whole 9 innings!  The Red Sox lost but I think the real show was the effect that lemonade had on our 5 year old!

Happy 60th and Happy 40 years!

Tonight, after a nice day of playing at the beach and pool, we all got dressed up and went out for a wonderful steak dinner at Smith and Wollensky's, a very nice steakhouse in a great location in Miami, right on the water at the end of the pier. Dinner was delicious! During a lull in the conversation, Ryan randomly commented that "That guy kind of looks like Kermit the Frog!" We asked who he meant and he said "The one who brought me my Shirley Temple!" And then he scrunched up his face like Kermit often does...and we all realized he was right, the waiter did resemble Kermit! This kid doesn't miss a trick....

 After dinner, Ryan went back to the hotel with Nana and Grandpa, and Tim and I were able to continue the night with Jim and Kim at another local bar.  A good time was had by all!

Hanging with Uncle Jim