Sometimes, getting out of town makes me nervous. I guilt myself with ideas that I’m too bogged down and I will be even more bogged down when I return, snowballing the bogged downness. But, I have found that sometimes, the thing that makes you nervous is really just the thing you need.
We hadn’t been up to Holbrook since Thanksgiving. It was time for a visit. It was really time for me and Jake to put aside our lists of things that need to be done before the real living can begin, and just let it begin. Grammy and Papa’s house is one of the best places for that to happen. And 4th of July weekend may very well be the best time for it too. Summer up there is second to none. It’s the quintessential all-American summertime that we have all dreamt about at some point… the one that reminds you of your childhood, mixed with scenes from movies, and embellished by your imagination. But up there, for these kids, it’s real.
Summer up here is a house and a yard full of age-matched cousins who are all super close.
It is reuniting with distant relatives who we feel so fortunate to know… like David, my sister-in-law’s brother, who can make my girl beam from across the room. To watch them interact makes my heart so happy.
It’s sweet, little new(ish) cousins/nieces/nephews who we are already falling in love with.
And I’m loving every minute of them forming bonds with each other; these bonds that will last a lifetime.
Summer means enjoying root beer floats, laying in the Kentucky Blue Grass (shipped all the way from Missouri), making s’mores, and laughter.
Summer here is having dinner picnic-style. It’s dessert every night. It’s setting off fireworks and watching them from the blanketed bed of a pick-up truck, tail-gait down, little ones piled up on laps, sticky with sweat and dirt and ice cream residue.
It means lazy walks and fast, wind-blown rides in the Ranger.
Summer here means playing with best friends.
And playing Uno whenever there were more than five spare minutes and two spare bodies.
Summer means eating vegetables straight out of the garden every night.
It’s wandering and being a free-range kid.
It’s playing with insects. The bugs up north are friendlier than they are down in Phoenix. In the desert, touching a bug may just wind you up in the hospital. But in Holbrook, boys can just be boys, and just enjoy the simple pleasure of counting how many roly polies they can have crawling on their arm at a time.
It’s baking home-made bread, and everyone has to pitch in.
It’s a parachute game, a water balloon toss, and a super soaker water war.
It’s love and fun and getting a sweet reminder of what living really is... or at least, of what it can be if we make the effort to set aside the demands of everyday life, put down the lists, and let our phone batteries run out without even noticing.
I gave myself some time away from my camera to just be hands-free, so not every memorable moment is pictured. In fact, some of the best ones weren’t, but I don’t think we’ll have any trouble hanging on to those memories in our minds and hearts.
