This past weekend I went to Michigan. It was my grandma's 90th birthday and I wanted to be there to help her celebrate this milestone. In addition to two birthday parties for my grandma, I was also able to spend a day with my parents enjoying Holland, meet up with the girl relatives on my mom's side for lunch, hang out with my niece and nephew, spend time with my brothers and my sister-in-law, see a couple of close friends from high school and also spend a little time with my in-laws. It was a very packed trip to Holland, as usual, but totally worth it.
My trips home are always filled with memories since there are numerous places I like to visit every time I am there such as downtown, the Peanut Store, Crane's, the beach and Donutville. These are places I frequented during my childhood and I haven't found anything to replace them yet! Every run I go on in Holland brings back memories of running in high school. Just being at my parent's house (now my brother and sister-in-law's house) and Micah's parent's house brings back a ton of memories of my high school days as well.
This trip home, though, brought back even more memories since my parent's are in the process of moving out of their house, thus I had to go through my stuff that is stored there to figure out what I really wanted to keep (read: have them bring out to NM in the near future). Also, Micah's parents are starting the process of packing as they will soon be moving to southern CO and of course my grandma's birthday got us all thinking about our memories with her.
Even though I really like to get rid of things that I don't think are necessary, I do get sentimental about all of my high school cross country awards, articles, plaques and t-shirts so that stuff is definitely being kept. But the elementary school projects are a little more grey. For example, in first grade Megan Vandermeer and I decided to create a book about two ducks...on HUGE paper. I clearly remember laying on the floor of her basement when she lived on Joyce St in Holland and working for days on this book. We were so proud. My parents recognized all of the work that went into this book and 22 years later they still have it! In my last blog post I posted pictures of the book, with translation as we quite obviously could not spell yet. The paper we used was probably about 2'x3' and it is now deteriorating. So for treasures such as this book, that I want to remember but don't want to put in storage, pictures are going to suffice. Here is another elementary school gem: a newspaper with articles of about ME :).
Some homemade cross country t-shirts...
The t-shirt from my best race ever...
And the "controversial" team shirt...
Seriously, the girls tennis team took offense to this. I guess they can't handle the truth :).
During my grandma's birthday party my dad suggested we all share memories of grandma. I think we all needed a little more time to think because it wasn't until after the party that I started thinking of things I could have shared.
I am so glad I had the opportunity to go back to Holland, even if it was only for a few days. It is always a great time, and I enjoy making new memories with family and friends every time I am there as well.
My trips home are always filled with memories since there are numerous places I like to visit every time I am there such as downtown, the Peanut Store, Crane's, the beach and Donutville. These are places I frequented during my childhood and I haven't found anything to replace them yet! Every run I go on in Holland brings back memories of running in high school. Just being at my parent's house (now my brother and sister-in-law's house) and Micah's parent's house brings back a ton of memories of my high school days as well.
This trip home, though, brought back even more memories since my parent's are in the process of moving out of their house, thus I had to go through my stuff that is stored there to figure out what I really wanted to keep (read: have them bring out to NM in the near future). Also, Micah's parents are starting the process of packing as they will soon be moving to southern CO and of course my grandma's birthday got us all thinking about our memories with her.
Even though I really like to get rid of things that I don't think are necessary, I do get sentimental about all of my high school cross country awards, articles, plaques and t-shirts so that stuff is definitely being kept. But the elementary school projects are a little more grey. For example, in first grade Megan Vandermeer and I decided to create a book about two ducks...on HUGE paper. I clearly remember laying on the floor of her basement when she lived on Joyce St in Holland and working for days on this book. We were so proud. My parents recognized all of the work that went into this book and 22 years later they still have it! In my last blog post I posted pictures of the book, with translation as we quite obviously could not spell yet. The paper we used was probably about 2'x3' and it is now deteriorating. So for treasures such as this book, that I want to remember but don't want to put in storage, pictures are going to suffice. Here is another elementary school gem: a newspaper with articles of about ME :).
Some homemade cross country t-shirts...
The t-shirt from my best race ever...
And the "controversial" team shirt...
Seriously, the girls tennis team took offense to this. I guess they can't handle the truth :).
During my grandma's birthday party my dad suggested we all share memories of grandma. I think we all needed a little more time to think because it wasn't until after the party that I started thinking of things I could have shared.
- My grandparents used to pick me up from pre-school sometimes because they lived really close. I remember walking back to their house from the school.
- Grandma used to serve sandwiches on napkins, which I always thought was really strange
- Grandma always had Windmill cookies in the house for grandpa
- One year for Christmas my grandparents bought me a HUGE teddy bear. It was too big to wrap so they hid it in the shower in the basement. I'll never forget finding that bear there!
- Sometimes we'd play games at my grandparent's house, and they kept the games in the bottom drawer of the dresser in the sewing room.
- One time my brothers and I spent the night at my grandparents house. Even though they had a few spare bedrooms upstairs, no one really went up there so they had us sleep in our sleeping bags on the floor in the living room. My brothers and I were goofing off and not falling asleep, and my grandma came in and said "If you kids aren't quiet you will have to go upstairs and sleep in separate rooms!" That is one of the only times I ever remember my grandma getting mad. And the threat worked - there was no way we were going to sleep in such a "scary" place!
- We all remember how fast of a walker grandma has always been. I bet she would have been a great runner!
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| Here I am with Grandma and my brother Kent at her birthday party |
I am so glad I had the opportunity to go back to Holland, even if it was only for a few days. It is always a great time, and I enjoy making new memories with family and friends every time I am there as well.
