Thank you to all who prayed for us as we spent a week in Washington to be with my sister after her heart surgery. She is really doing superb!
I've been able to take each kid on a trip to Washington with me now. Liz was pretty small when she went with me, so maybe I'll have to take her again sometime (if she wants to go).
Harrison has flown before, but didn't remember it, so this was like a first time flying for him. He told me he's never prayed this much before. We had a total of three flights. On one flight he would tell me he never wanted to fly again, and on the next flight he would tell me it was fun. So I don't know what his overall impression will be when he gets some distance from the flights.
He told me at the airport that if he had to choose an airplane job, if it couldn't be pilot, he would want to be the guy with the security dog walking around sniffing at luggage (he was watching this at Sea-Tac airport and was intrigued).
Uncle Cory picked us up from the airport and took us out for lunch and to a beach park. Gorgeous, a little cold, and so much fun to balance on the driftwood.
Uncle Cory and Harrison
Harrison going up and down the escalators while waiting for Tonya and Dad to fly in from Cleveland.
We scheduled our flights for the same day. Tonya didn't especially enjoy flying all day after a surgery, but she really handled everything so well. We immediately left for a 3 hour drive from the airport to Tonya's home in Zillah.
We have to drive over the beautiful Cascade Mountains to get there. The snowy peaks, the tiny water falls flowing down the sides, their massiveness ~ I'm always glad my kids get to experience a little bit of the mountains when we go see my family.
The big pain for the road trip home was that Tonya kept coughing and it would hurt her chest badly. We tried to keep her in cough drops. She got sick that evening too and throwing up did not feel good. I wish there is something you could do to help someone in pain cause it's hard to just stand there and watch and not be able to do anything about it.
Harrison got to spend a whole week with his cousins Jordan and Joshua.
They are digging up sand chunks here.
Joshua is a natural at playing instruments. He is into saxophone right now. So proud of you, Josh!
Uncle Cory took all the boys of the house to the store to get cards and gifts for Mother's Day. There were 3 mothers and 5 boys in Tonya's house for Mother's Day. It was special for all of us to celebrate together.
Hanging out in the back yard.
Tonya looks so normal, doesn't she? I was thinking she would be languishing on her bed while we tended wounds and brought her ice chips and spoon-fed soups. But that was not the case at all!
My dad was with her the whole time at the hospital and he got all the pain care. Tonya was very close to normal several days after she got home. She can't lift 5 or more pounds. She can't sweep or mop. She can't lift her hands above her head or drive. Her right arm hurts, her head aches, and it was still painful to cough or sneeze (although the coughing was gone by the end of the week). But she was up and walking around and doing different household things and very much was back to normal.
Harrison and Matthew playing tetherball.
Jordan is Tonya's oldest and is autistic.
He went on one of our walks with us. He likes to get where he's going! I had to take his hand finally because Tonya couldn't go as fast as he wanted to.
On our walk.
A pretty church in town.
There's a face picture of Jordan! He was so sweet and polite to me. I was glad to spend so much time with my nephews.
We had a hot dog roast one evening. Tonya has a great backyard for hospitality.
Emily has two boys (toddler and baby). Tonya got to know them from church, and they are staying with her right now. She is a big help to Tonya and I'm glad she's there for her. Emily can drive her around and get groceries and all kinds of things. Matthew, the toddler, followed Harrison around all week, so now Harrison has had a taste of being a big brother. (Not that he will be! There are no plans for that!)
Joshua and I had several games of tetherball. He smashed me every time.
Harrison and Matthew are on the swing together.
We were with Tonya for almost a week and then headed back to Seattle. These windmills against the mountains were pretty.
The Space Needle.
I've still never gone up in that thing.
Mount Rainier.
We spent several hours with my parents. They drove us to Aunt Mary's where we stayed the night before heading to the airport.
Aunt Mary lives in the city but has this incredible fenced-in yard with chickens, cats, dogs, rabbits, and soon-to-be ducks. She has a small pond, a garden, fruit trees, raspberry and gooseberry bushes, a greenhouse..... She sent us home with raspberry sprouts, buttermilk biscuits, homemade cookies, and ground pepper seasoning made from peppers she grew. Amazing.
I snuck a picture of Aunt Mary. She doesn't like her picture taken apparently, so I had to be surreptitious. We had great conversation while I was there. It's been many years since we've talked. Harrison said to me, "Mom, we don't get to spend a lot of time with your side of the family. I'm glad I got to meet some of them."
Grandma Shirley (my dad's mom) came by to see Tonya and I as she was passing through to Spokane. So we also had great conversation. Grandma is 87, a Christian, and very matter of fact. I told her I was so glad to see her and she said, "Yes, this may be the last time we see each other...... Well, we'll see each other in heaven."
Harrison asked me, "Was she sad when she said that?" No, she was not. She's realistic and has hope.
I asked Grandma a number of questions about growing up.
She grew up in Nebraska mostly on farms. Her family moved around a lot. At one point her dad helped some family do a butchering/grocery business in town. It was then that Grandma Shirley (being 14, she thinks) decided she should be going to church. She can't remember what made her think that, but she got up and got ready one Sunday morning and walked to church. First her mom and then sister and eventually most of the family joined her. She said neither of her parents had grown up with any religion.
Grandma lived in a sod house for several years. The concrete piece above is on Aunt Mary's mantelpiece and was what they used to fill in the cracks in the sod house. Grandma mostly remembers that they had a lot of rodents in the sod house, and she didn't like that. She talked about a cloudburst that happened one season. She remembered her dad rushing to the house and unharnessing the horses. They got 12 inches of rain in two hours. They lost the crops, a horse and some cattle. It washed all the soil away and left sand.
She met her husband in high school. There were 10 kids in her class and 20 kids in the whole high school. I asked her what dating Grandpa was like. She said she remembers 6 kids all going to the movies one night. And one time he took her to shoot gophers. She was going to go to prom with him, but a man in town died tragically and they cancelled the prom. As a matter of fact, there were so few girls in school, that each girl was supposed to invite two boys to prom. So Grandma was going to go with Grandpa and his brother (Jim and Tom). Anyway, prom was cancelled.
Grandpa was in the Air Force. My dad remembers moving around a lot. But they never lived overseas. Grandpa was 8 months in Saigon, Korea for a year, and was in Thailand flying in to rescue men who had been shot down in Cambodia. Grandma said he received all the awards up to the Purple Heart. They were married 16 years before Grandpa died in an airplane accident over Nebraska within a 100 miles of his hometown.
Grandma said she took one day at a time after his death. When they got home after the funeral, she said it felt cold. But after that it was okay. She had 7 children. She got a job as a secretary with the Post Office. She said she really wasn't qualified ~ she couldn't type very fast. But a family member helped her get the job. Their home was in California. Her sister was near also. But then her sister moved to Spokane. When Grandma and the kids went to visit Spokane, they really liked it, so they also moved there. Several other family friends moved around the same time (I think one family got a job in Spokane and all the friends eventually followed). And I remember going to church with Kanallys and Walkers. All of them had been in California and they followed each other to Spokane.
Grandma is living with Aunt Mary. We sent her a poster of one of Phoebe's drawings and she has it up in her sewing room.
Grandma has made 21 quilts since she moved to Mary's.
When I described Grandma's bedroom and sewing set-up to Phoebe, she cried, "I want an Aunt Mary! I need an Aunt Mary to live with!" We told her she'll have to birth one then, just like Grandma did.
Whew! A lot of good stuff was packed into a week.
Harrison and I felt pretty sickly on one of the airplanes back home. But when we landed in St. Louis he said, "It smells better here." He was very glad to be home. The mountains are beautiful, but we like our Missouri.
