Here we are, in Fort Wayne again for Easter.
It’s been well over a year since we visited, and Easter seems to be the sweet spot with weather and Spring Break at school. We tried to make a trip earlier in the year, but the winter weather wasn’t cooperating.
It’d been a little too long since our last visit, and your young mind didn’t remember the house. Of course, you can get comfortable quickly and aren’t intimidated by seeing Grammie with her oxygen nose tubes that help her since one of her cancerous lungs failed.
I’m amazed and shouldn’t be surprised by how you and Eliza can quickly entertain yourselves in a new environment. Eliza found an old doll in a wicker box that she named Lisa and has drug around with her everywhere. Your Mom bought you a football that we’ve spent hours throwing and kicking. It all goes to show that you don’t need much in life to have fun. Perhaps the less you have, the more imaginative you are for the better.
Once again, we had an Easter egg hunt, and the Easter Bunny was flush with cash this year. You and Eliza each found eggs totally $44. I have no idea why you hit that unround number. The ATMs must be different out here.
Your Mom is also having a good time and started with a bang. At the car rental facility, she coyly suggested we upgrade from a small SUV to a more fancy Lincoln Navigator and negotiated a remarkable discount for us with the willing Enterprise employee. We are riding in style this trip! Otherwise, she’s helping organize and disgard around the house, as she usually does. On our rides around the city, she points out houses where her friends grew up, and many of their parents haven’t moved.
Ty, Amber, Abby, and Mason visited over the weekend. You got your share of time playing football and soccer with Mason and Abby, who ran you ragged. Or maybe vice-versa. Your Popa Roger sat on the porch most of the day to take it all in — the rare occassion that the extended family is together. That doesn’t happen so often, neither good or bad. The reality is that distance and life stage keeps us apart, and that will continue as your cousins mature into independent adults. What matters is that we enjoy the time when we have it.
Your Mom and Uncle Ty also prove that you can stay close even when the visits are infrequent. That is one of the most important and underappreciated qualities to build. Fortunately, you can see how that’s done first-hand here in Indiana.
Love, Dad