A Surprise Visit
January 24, 2010 by Kasey
Filed under Family Time, Outings
Living far away from your family is hard and can be really lonely at times. I know that a lot of you have moved from home, leaving behind those you love for whatever reason and understand what I mean.
Most of my family lives in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, while I am in Illinois. Not exactly close to everyone, but not too far either. Having two young children, it makes it hard to just jump in the car and head out on a 6 – 9 hour drive on a whim one weekend.
So, this past weekend..my sister, Kari, who lives close to me, headed to Kentucky to surprise our younger sister, Katie for her 16th Birthday party blowout! We left the men and children at home and took off on a 6 hour road trip. I haven’t been there in over 2 years, so this was huge for me!
Katie was REALLY excited to see us sitting at her kitchen table when she came up from working on finalizing her guest list for her party. (yes, there really was a guest list of 70 kids!!) I’m pretty sure I saw tears in her eyes.
The party was really fun and we spent a lot of time feeling old. I’m telling you…girls these days look much older than we did and are MUCH taller than I am. My dad and step-mom hired a DJ from a local station that the girls swooned over. He was such a cutie and was perfect for the party. They played songs I never heard and danced for 3 hours straight! It was a lot of fun for everyone!
The next night we had a nice dinner at a local Italian restaurant before heading to downtown Cincinnati to see Spring Awakening. Would you believe that we got the times mixed up and showed up right before the 2nd act??! HAHA! It was OK though…I really enjoyed it and I’m sure we’ll get a chance to see the 1st half some other time.
I had a chance that night to sit with my sisters and talk about all that “sister” stuff that we don’t have the luxury of doing normally. It was really nice and I was sorry that we don’t get to do it more often.
Two days after getting there, it was time to pack up and head home.
Leaving your family is always bitter sweet. You know you’re heading home to your home, but leaving a familiar home as well. I love where I live and love my home, but it’s also sad that family is not close. Family has always been a huge importance in my life and I want my children to know that feeling and experience it as well. It seems that now, Ella is really starting to understanding who her grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles are and wants to spend more time with them and asks about them all the time. It’s hard for her to understand that we don’t see some due to distance and others due to…well…that’s another post all together, but one that heavy on my heart and will be posted one day soon.
But, life is what it is and we do the best we can do and that’s all we can do. As long as I know at the end of the day that I did everything I can to make my husband, kids and home a happy one…that’s all that matters!
I do hope that one day, when the time is right….to move closer to those I love so that my children experience a large, loving extended family. They deserve it. As do I.
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So glad to see comment luv back to normal!
And those pictures of you all are so adorable, looks like you all had a great time. I have to say I’m lucky that all of my family is in Jersey, so the farthest drive is only about an hour. For you, these times are most precious! Thaks for sharing!
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We really had a great time! It’s nice that your family is so close…it should be that way!
Kasey and Kari,
Having the two of you here for Katie’s 16th made it just about the best birthday ever. And, by the way, Eric is still talking about his big sisters coming to see him.
Thank you Brian and CC for ‘holding down the fort’ while the women-folk had all the fun. LOL!!
Love,
Dad
Well, I am so glad we were able to make it. It was a really nice time and I hope to do it again REALLY soon!
Love you lots!
I really like the picture with the whole family. Will you print it out for me sometime? I had a really good time and i still feel a little sad that we had to leave. I was very happy we got to have our sister time with Katie. Especially that she is getting older and will go away to college and be really busy. Well I will talk to you later. Love, Kari
Yes, I’ll get a copy to you!
It was sad to leave, so that must mean we need to make more trips there and they need to make more trips here. I was thinking of an Easter trip for the whole fam!
Could she be smiling any bigger in that last picture? WOW! Happy birthday to her – and you are right, 70 kids is a bday party blowout for sure LOL I went to a small school and there were only 50 kids in my entire graduating class, so I can’t imagine how I would invite 70
I am so glad you got to see her and spend that birthday celebrating with your family. I can imagine how hard it must be living so far away!
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Yes, Annie…I understand!! My 16th Birthday probably had about 30 kids or so, but we had a good time!
I was so glad to be able to be there to spend it with her! You should see some of the photos AND video from the party!! FUN!!
Ok….now it’s COUSIN TIME!!!!….You can pretend you’re turning 16 and we’ll all just play along!!! Kasey it looks like you guys had so much fun…the pictures were fantastic and I have a lump in my throat…I miss you all so much it hurts. I hear there might be summer beach plans in the works…I hope so…I’ll do my best…PROMISE
love to you ALL
LA
PS…that means Kari can be REALLY young!
Oh I know! I miss you all sooo much!! I really hope to come soon. I hope that we can get the beach trip all worked out. Wouldn’t that be the MOST fun???!!!
I love the idea of having a 16th Birthday party for me too!! OMG! That would be hilarious!!
Love ya!!
Awww! Looks like you all had a wonderful time together! Love the pictures. Your family is beautiful
Thanks so much, Kim!
Don’t forget to send your pics to us!
We wish you were closer too. I like the part where you say you’ll move someday! LOL.
We miss all of you every day.
Love,
Sheila (step-mommy dearest)
I’ll send them! I have a bunch PLUS videos!! haha!!!
Hope to see you again soon!
Love ya!
Kasey it looks like u guys had a great time!! The three of u all have the same smile!!You all look so pretty!! I totally understand about living far from home, only I don’t even talk to most of my family. It’s hard not having any family out here. Josh’s family lives in Rippley, Wv and they never come out here cause it is such a long drive. But they always expect us to pack up the kids and come home once a year. I wish they knew how hard it is for us to do that. We have a small car so when we do go in we have to rent a van and it gets so expensive. But no one is ever happy with how much time they get to spend with us! I don’t think we are going to go home this year! We just want a vaca!!!
It would be nice for my kids to get to see their family but it’s too hard and no one wants to come out here!! I hope u get to move closer to ur family too!! I bet ur kids would love it!!
Love,
Kati
You’re right, Katie…it’s so hard to travel that far with kids. The drive is long and kids do not like sitting that long. (neither do I! haha!)
We haven’t been on a vacation since our honeymoon, so I’m hoping to combine a family trip with a beach trip this year. Who knows, but I hope it happens!!
Lots of love to you! Keep up the good (hard!) work on raising those babies!
Such great pictures! It looks like everybody had a really great time.
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Thanks, Crystal! We had a wonderful time. One of the best weekends in a long time!
i understand how hard it is,my closest sibling lives 2 hours away so we see each other pretty regularly, but the rest are spread out over , tennessee, illinois, wisconsin its always hard to get all of us together , but we try at least once a year, luckily my daughter just purchased a house here in town, she was gonna move to illinois, whew, so glad she didnt i would miss her and my grandson way to much!!