Grateful.

I realized today that I forgot to include photos of me with my grandma & grandpa from last weekend in Illinois. But that got me thinking that I really just wanted to do a post in honor of all of my grandparents. I am so incredibly blessed to still have all four of them a part of my life.

My mom's parents live in Springfield MO. They were the city grandparents - such a treat for a country girl like myself! I used to spend a couple weeks with them every summer as a kid, and we always had the best time. I remember playing pool at their house in the basement, helping my grandpa with yard work, going to my grandma's work office, and of course doing some back-to-school clothes shopping! It was at their house that I first learned to love the smell of coffee in the morning. I remember going to Synod School with them, and getting to stay in dorm rooms there (where was that anyway?). In college, I remember going to get burgers with them at Braums, and how I never left town without my gramps giving me a $20 for gas. I discovered the tasty goodness of dry roasted peanuts thrown in a bowl of Cherrios for breakfast...and I still crave vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup & peanuts at their house (and they always have it in stock!). My grandma & I have talked about everything under the sun over coffee at her breakfast table, and I always look forward to that time with her on every visit. I love that my grandpa prays before every meal together, and the way he eats his pizza with poppyseed dressing. I loved their visit to Jacksonville at the end of their cruise, and their visit out to Fort Collins in October 2007; getting to show them around my homes! I remember the road trip my grandma took with my mom and siblings to visit me in Jax, and how we took her for her first pedicure and out to the beach. I remember watching them both play tennis in the summers as a kid. These are just a few of the memories that knit together my relationship with my Grandma & Grandpa D.

My dad's parents live in Southern Illinois. I used to spend a month or two with them in the summers, exploring their farmland & learning all kinds of crazy country things :) I learned to dig up worms for bait, and how to hook them, and how to know when a fish grabs hold of the line (besides the bobber going under). I learned how to get eggs out from underneath a chicken, and to always look up when walking into a chicken coop in case there's a friendly snake dangling from the rafters. I remember the sound of the nearby train at night, and the roosters in the morning. I remember my grandpa scaring the living daylights out of us with stories of Red Eye, and I still get freaked walking outside at night. I remember how the old shop used to smell. I have always loved walking down to the barn with grandpa to feed the cows, and I remember as a kid playing way up high on the stored hay bales. I remember washing dishes with my grandma after meals, and just getting to talk. And at the end of the visit she always took us back-to-school shopping too, for a few new things. I remember knowing there were always treats in the deep freeze for after dinner. I remember time with them in Florida when we'd first moved there, and my grandpa was getting treatment at the Mayo Clinic - and how grateful I was for family in a place where I knew no one else. I remember meeting them at their hotel for dinner on a weekend check-up visit they made a few years later while we were still there, and just getting to catch up the four of us - and then taking them out to the beach and Starbucks after. I still love the way a John Deere sounds, and I could recognize Allis Chalmer orange anywhere thanks to my gramps. I remember going to church with them in the little white country church every Sunday I was there, and I love that my grandpa still tells me every time we talk that he prays for us everyday. I won't forget the conversations I had this weekend with my grandma - and just sitting on the couch in the evenings watching the Olympics with her til way past our bedtimes. These are just a few of the memories that knit together my relationship with my Grandma & Grandpa Price ("the grandma with the chickens and the grandpa with no hair" as I dubbed them early on).

My life is immeasurably blessed by the lives of my grandparents - full of integrity and commitment to God & family (over 50 years of marriage each!), and good ole fashioned hard work. I could write a book on the memories I have, but simply put I'm just grateful today for them.