How true that expression is for me and the three kids these past nine days. We are having such a blast and packing so much in that time is just passing us by waaaay too quickly.
This morning, after more marathon playing amongst all of the kids here at Sharla's, we (Sharla, me, and all of the kids) took off for the West Edmonton Mall and spent a few hours in the Galaxyland kids' play park. To say that all of the kids had fun on the rides would be a gross understatement! I loved seeing my eldest holding hands with one of Sharla's boys, or one of them throwing their arms around the other; I loved seeing the kids' excitement about being with each other on the various rides; I loved seeing them give each other hugs (and in the case of Lizzie and one of Sharla's boys, kisses!) as we parted for the remainder of the day; I just love to see them all connecting so well. This is a fine (and large) mess of kids!
Matthew, Seth, Lizzie and I then grabbed a quick, late lunch on the run and headed off to the home of a cousin of mine, whom I haven't seen for a couple of years. I really enjoy Sue and her husband and their two kids and it was really lovely for my kids to be able to play with their second cousins. I also loved seeing them in their home environment for the first time, and left their home thinking that they are a really neat family. Sue, who is about five years my junior, told me at the end of the evening that she had told her daughter earlier today about three meaningful memories she has of me when we were kids: first, she remembered that I used to comb her hair and she loved that; second, I was apparently the/a reason why she took up playing the flute (I played the flute); and third, that when I cut my hair for the first time at the age of about 16-17, she cut hers short, too, to look like me. Honestly, those things were so touching for me to hear...that someone kinda of looked up to me when I was a kid. I had no idea that these things would have meant anything to her. Wow. I wish I'd understood that then. But, anyway, I really loved seeing the four of them again and wish we lived closer...though apparently they're taking a driving trip of their own this summer and are headed our way!
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I'm sitting downstairs in Sharla's house as I write this, waiting for Matthew to fall asleep. Sharla and I just sent a couple of emails back and forth to each other and we thought it was so funny that most of our relationship thus far has been via email and here we are, only one floor apart in the same house at the same time, and we're still emailing! How funny.
I'm thinking that tomorrow is likely our last full day here in Edmonton and I'm more than a little sad that the end of our time in Alberta is now in sight. But we have one more visit to make tomorrow that we're really looking forward to; also, the kids will absolutely want to spend more time playing with Sharla's kids...and I still have a little more visiting to do with Sharla! We still have a lot to pack into our trip...so I'm going to choose not to think of the end of our trip quite yet.
I'm so happy that things are going well and you are loving your trip. Keep having fun.
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