...past the city limit sign, well there's a honky-tonk near the county line...
You want to keep singing, don't you? It's cool.
I spent last week in small-town-Utah (waaaaay out in the country!) with my cute dad and his sister working on a family history project together. 3 hours there, 3 hours back. We spent this time yapping, laughing, telling stories and listening to a talk on CD as we drove.
We stayed at my grandparents home, where we photographed my Great Grandma's oil paintings (collected from family members), and then my Aunt and I stayed up late many nights working on the design of a poem book we're putting together and printing of my grandma's poetry. It's amazing all that she wrote.
And of course, we made time to play a little. With these two kids. The gray hair is really a ploy. You get two siblings together, at any age, and they become silly & adolescent. It's true.
My grandparents have both been gone for over ten years. Grandpa in 1997 and Grandma a year later, in 1998. They were the cutest. True lovebirds. Always so affectionate and caring towards one another and the most adoring parents & grandparents you could ask for. Being in their home without them there is still so strange for me. I've only been back a couple times since their passing, but I kept visualizing my Grandpa in his trademark suspenders at the kitchen sink doing dishes, out in his garden, or near the corral with his horses. I could visualize Grandma sitting in her chair facing the front door (with a collection of stationary on the desk by her side for writing) anxious to hug & squeeze us as we walked in. She was often found working in the kitchen too, on the phone with her sister, Aunt Aggie, who lived just down the path, or leaning on her cane and yelling "please slow down!" from the front porch as we made circles around the house in their golf cart.
(circa 1996)
I can still remember my grandparents both waiting at the end of the walkway, after long goodbyes, waving to us (Grandma waving with her cane as we got further away) until we were out of sight. My parents have picked up on this tradition and do the same thing with their kids as they come and go. Waving until we're out of sight. Always long goodbyes.
Last week I walked out under the stars a couple nights just to soak in the fresh air and look at the stars. It's incredible how many more stars you can see when you remove that layer of gross pollution you see in the city!
My dad told me he use to climb atop the hay stacks when he was there visiting as an adult and lay on his back just thinking & looking at the stars. Sometimes falling asleep. I'm thinking that is a pretty great idea and that I need a haystack now and an awesome country setting. Don't you think?
The gorgeous night sky...
This is my dad, below, totally in his element at a little hometown cafe down the road we went to for breakfast. The owners were an Aunt & Uncle of Lane Frost, the bull-rider they based the movie 8-Seconds on. There was even a live band in the back! Two old men playing guitars. Rad.
We also went to our first cornfest, in an equally small town, next to where my grandparents lived. We ended up purchasing over 10 dozen ears of corn on our way out of town. Yum. So de-lish!
And then there is this photo. What happens when you spend the week with two girls. Sorry, dad...
