It must be because I have only one set of grandparents remaining, but I have had an overwhelming desire to find out all I can about their lives. I have papers and books and notes about their lives but I can never remeber weeks later what I had read. When my dad presented Cole and I with an opportunity to go to Portland last week I jumped at the chance. He wanted to take his car up to his brother's car auction to sell and so his plan was that Cole and I would drive the kids over to Phoenix, drop them off, drive back home to our house and leave the next day for Oregon. We stayed the night in Woodland, CA just north of Sacramento and then drove through scary snowy mountians to Portland. We arrived on Friday night and flew back to Phoenix on Sunday. That is ummm...4 days or so without kids and 21 hours in the car with only Cole, I and some books on CD which we managed to get through with 2 of them. The drive was nice. Valentine's Day was nice. Sleeping in was nice. But, I missed my kids and was glad to be with them again. I actaully, now, have lots of family up north now. We stayed with my aunt and uncle but then we saw my grandparents, another aunt, and a cousin and her husband. I know that as teenagers we all got the "your family will one day be your best friends" and we all blew that off, but it is so true and I don't think we could put it any different to our kids today to make them trust us on that. They will just have to experience it for themselves. I did get some stories out of my grandparents. My grandpa used to dig graves as a scout ongoing project. My great-great grandmother was kidnapped in England by some gypsies for about a week. Then when she was older she married her husband on the boat to America after 11 days of courting. My grandmother makes the best lemon mereigne pie in the world (which I informed her I had never tasted and why had I never tasted it?) Anyways, I am very blessed to be from the ancestors I am. I am blessed that I am able to meet a 'cousin' everywhere I move to. And I am blessed to be such good friends with my family and extended family.