Family visits

I have moved about 24 times in my life thus far.  In my first 10 years of life, I moved 7 times.  My dad was active duty in the U.S. Air Force.  For our family, visits to and from family was quite rare--maybe once a year when we were actually stateside.  However, for nearly 6 of those 10 years we lived in Germany.  We did have family visit us a few times, but not repeated trips and nor once a year, for understandable reasons.

My dad went from active duty to the National Guard for a variety of reasons when I was 10.  We moved to the St. Louis area, where my mom's family lived.  It also was a 6 hour drive from my dad's parents who lived in Arkansas.  Obviously, we saw my mom's family ALL the time.  We did not see my Grandma and Grandpa Scott quite as often though--maybe 2-3 times a year.  In fact, my parents split the holidays and kept it consistent.  We saw Dad's parents on Thanksgiving, and spent Christmas with my mom's family.  It always seemed normal (oh, and we never did a separate Christmas celebration with my Dad's family).  As kids, I don't think I felt any differently about either sets of grandparents or cousins.  I loved them both equally! I also noticed that my parents loved both and enjoyed the time with whoever they spent time with.

What was nice, though, was that despite seeing one set of grandparents less frequently, there was no guilt placed on my parents or comparisons on the amount of time spent with one or another.  My grandparents understood the circumstances and knew that their kids and grandkids loved them and wouldn't forget them, ever.

Now, that I'm an adult, I still love and appreciate family visits!  Currently, my DH and I live in Illinois.  His parents live 5-6 hours away in Iowa, whereas my parents live 16 hours away in Florida.  For understandable reasons, we visit my parents a LOT less often than my in-laws.  In fact, we only go to Florida to visit my parents, sister and her family, once a calendar year.  That's it.  We go out to see my in-laws at least 4-5 times a year, typically.  So, since we've been married (2009), I've only gone out to Florida twice...once at Christmas in 2009 and last September/October (2010).  The hardest part of the distance for me is that I really miss my niece and nephew like crazy.  I spent a lot of time with them until I moved up here when my niece was 3 1/2 and my nephew 2.  It is wonderful, though, that I do get to spend time with my niece and nephew by marriage.  I love those two kids as well.

What has been nice, since I've been up here, is that my parents come to visit.  This is the first time in my adult years that my parents have come to visit regularly--more than once a year.  When I lived in Illinois the first time (from 98-00), my parents came up to St. Louis once for a visit and another time for my grandfather's funeral, but never made it up to Quincy.  Then, I lived in Murfreesboro, TN.  In my 2 years there, they only visited once.  It wasn't because they didn't want to, but at the time they were still working full-time and their schedule didn't allow for more frequent visits.  Back then, I would visit my parents twice a year. Now, I get to see my parents about 4-5 times a year between visits to us and our annual trek to Florida.

I love my family.  I enjoy family visits!  I always have!  I hope our Ginny enjoys them as well and the time she gets to spend with all her cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

Right now, we are anticipating a family visit.  My parents drove up from Florida with my niece Kendall and nephew Carson.  They spent a couple of days in St. Louis (Ginny & I joined them for one of those days) and now they will spend a couple of days with us!  I can't wait!  While I love my folks, I am most excited about spending time with Kendall and Carson!  Yipee!!