This past week found me doing life in the city of Burnsville, with my granddaughters, Lexi and Abbi, and also their brother, Taylor, when he popped in the door on Friday afternoon home from college at the University of Sioux Falls. It is always fun to go and stay with some of our grandkids and see what is happening in their lives.
Abbi is a swimmer, and it was fun for me to get to watch her compete one evening when her team had a meet against Farmington. She is only a 7th grader, but was fortunate to be included this year as a member on the varsity team. She is learning a lot, and really enjoys the friendships of the other team members. I am amazed at how much stamina they have to have to make multiple laps across the pool, or move as quickly as possible to beat their opponents in a relay, backstroke, or freestyle event. It gets pretty loud in those pool areas when everyone is cheering those swimmers on! (And hot an humid too!)
I’ll get to be a part of Lexi’s choir concert before I head back to southwest Minnesota also. She has participated in singing and choir for several of her school years, and even though we don’t get to all of the performances, it is real treat when we do. She is a sophomore already, so time is moving quickly for us to be there to experience it with her.
Saturday morning Lexi and I spent time in the kitchen together, as she likes to bake when she has time. Her banana bread turned out great, and she was able to take some for a family supper. She requested me to bring the homemade ice cream maker up with me, so that was churning away while we worked. We decided to set it outside the door in the gently falling snow as it really was loud! When we finally brought it into the kitchen, we both enjoyed an early taste before we shared it with everyone else. By the time we finished, the “dasher” from inside the can was pretty clean!
When we just wanted to have some down time, and the homework and cleaning was done, we enjoyed some friendly marble games between the girls and I. It is played on a wooden board that Grandpa Dan made for each of our grandkids’ families. It probably compares to the boughten game of Aggrivation, where the opponents marbles can be taken off and sent back to start. When I was growing up, we called it Wahoo when I would match up with my own Grandpa Fred. He loved to blow and kind of “spit” onto the dice before he rolled them. Those were fun times!
One afternoon while I was there, I met up with three sisters that were some of my closest friends growing up in Bigelow, MN. Two of them live in the Twin Cities area, and one was there visiting from Yuma, AZ. After we spent a morning laughing and catching up with each other’s lives, we enjoyed a quick lunch at Chick Filet. Our afternoon consisted of “ Four ladies and a red truck” helping one of them begin to move into a new senior living area in Woodbury, MN. By the time the afternoon had passed, we had quite a pile of totes and boxes stacked into her new apartment. We decided we could start a business if we wanted to! (I don’t think we do, but we could call ourselves “Slow, but steady”!) Anyway, we sure had a fun time doing it, and being helpful and productive at the same time. All friends are special, but “old” friendships that just “begin where we last left off” are such a blessing.
Taylor and I spent a little time catching up while we did laundry together. He was in and out during the time he was home, catching up with old high school friends and attending the Minnesota and Nebraska game on Saturday. When your grandkids become adults, and are venturing out living on their own or at college, relationships take on a different nature. I love to still hear “grandma” on the phone or calling from another room. Their is just something enduring about that “friendship”, grandparent to grandchild, even when time has turned them into adults.
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