Happy Sunday and happy April! Minus the seasonal allergies that have kicked-in at full swing, we could not be happier that it’s April. It feels like winter has curled up and retreated into its cold corner, and the sunshine of spring has finally prevailed. Thank God.
Once again, we’re writing to you from 30,000 feet. We just spent the weekend visiting our grandparents and celebrating our mom’s cousin, Carin’s, baby shower!! We think that makes her our cousin first-removed (?), but she feels a lot closer than that.
Our grandparent’s farm in Fall City, WA holds a special place in our hearts. When we lived in Guatemala for four years, we didn’t have a home in the U.S. So, at the beginning of every summer, we would land at the SEA-TAC airport with upwards of 8 suitcases, a cat, a dog, and multiple snack bags. Their farm was our home for those summers, and we had lots of quality time with our grandparents (just ask them!). Spending a few days there this weekend felt like going back home—familiar in a way that very few places are.
Savannah and I were reflecting on memories from those summers, and all the other times we have spent with Nana and Papa, and thought we would list a few of the things that we have learned, picked up from, or admire about our grandparents. You truly have to know them to understand their essence, but we’re going to try and capture some of that here.
It’s worthwhile to keep the trinkets and tidbits that are special or hold a memory. This weekend, we were going through the building adjacent to their barn (our family has coined it the “multi-purpose room” because it really is, multi-purpose). But, the primary purpose of this 4,000 sq. ft. building is to serve as the home for all of the things—big and small—that have accumulated throughout our extended family’s lives.
From couches to cowboy boots to letters from the 1950s to family recipe books to printed photographs to old college memorabilia… it’s all there. And while that behavior may present itself as hoarding (which in part is very true LOL), it is also a time machine into the memorable and mundane moments of the lives of many of our family members. It felt like time didn’t even exist in that room, as we flipped through old handwritten letters and touched our great-grandmother’s hand-sown cloth handkerchiefs. The only evidence that time had passed was the light layer of dust that coated the boxes and furniture. While the multi-purpose room may be a ~little~ bit overboard, we kind of love it and are going to make an effort to keep more of the little bits and bobs that make up our lives, just so that our kids and grandkids get to experience a time machine, too :)
We wrote about this in our Five For Five newsletter, but Nana likes to collect rocks—rocks on the beach, rocks in the forest, rocks in the driveway… she’s not picky. She just can’t help herself—if she sees something beautiful, she’ll pick it up. It’s a good trait—to find beautiful patterns and colors and textures in things that most people would step right on over. We love that about her. And luckily for her, she chose a partner who (while he may grunt and grumble about it) just lets her do her thing. With an exasperated eye roll and something along the lines of “shit, Sharon” mumbled under his breath, he’ll dutifully carry her bag of rocks all the way home (even if it means loading all the rocks into their luggage, only to have it confiscated by security… that one still makes us laugh). So the moral of the story is: find beauty in driveway rocks, and make sure you find a partner who will carry them home for you.
They wake up cheerful, every morning. With a steaming cup of black coffee in hand, and a dog or a cat trailing behind them… they are just happy to be here. Nothing grand or monumental necessary, just the dewy freshness of a new day.
They love their animals like family members. When we were at the farm over the weekend, the majority of our conversations revolved around how the pets were doing, how much they ate, and who needed more food. They recently got a new dog, Mattie, who has caused their rescue cat, Frankie, to go into hiding. This has caused some hunger issues for the stressed cat, and it doesn’t make it better that Mattie continues to ever-so-silently scarf down Frankie’s food. On top of their house pets, they have two horses who receive top-notch treatment, as well (they even get hand-sliced carrots on top of their grain).
And as for the pets that don’t even belong to them, they save scraps for them, too — specifically the coyotes. Needless to say, Nana and Papa care for their animals just as much as they would a family member. I guess we see where it comes from, because we have a prince Max of our own (our angel baby golden retriever).
One thing we love about Nana and Papa is how simple their lives are. They don’t need a lot to make them happy — good food, family, pets, a healthy body, and a bed to sleep in. They live a beautiful life, and it shows us just how comforting a simple life can be.
Needless to say, Nana and Papa are some of our favorite people ever. So much of us is rooted in them. We told them not to miss us too much, because we’ll be back at the farm in a little under a month :) Until then, they’ll be busy hosting other grandkids, loving on their animals, shopping at Costco, cleaning up the raspberry bushes, and collecting rocks. Sounds like a dream life to us <3 See you guys next Sunday!
Beautifully written! You did capture their essence wonderfully. Lots to learn in your post this week. ❤️
Love this tribute to Duke & Sharon. Though we’ve not seen each other in person for way too long, they are two of the best people I’ve been lucky enough to know.💚