Sunday, January 2, 2011

Escanaba

So, we spent the 18th-23rd and the 28th-29th in Escanaba.  I love my hometown a lot more now than I ever did when I lived there.  I love that whenever we go somewhere, I see a lot of people I know.  Life is so much slower-paced there.  I miss that.  Some highlights:

We got to visit with Grandma a few times.  Once when we first arrived and she came again on the 29th with Aunt Patti's family.  She loved seeing Lila and couldn't believe how old/big she is already.  She seems to be doing alright.  She's so short, shorter than me now.  She really seems like an old lady now, not as much energy or pep as she used to have.  One night, we watched a DVD Uncle Tony sent us... home videos from Grandpa Rudy's 75th birthday and Grandma's 80th.  In the first video, I was only 1.5 years old and was probably Lila's size but had hair down to my shoulder blades already.  It was so funny seeing my aunts and uncles in the 80's and seeing them raising their little kids.  How time flies.  And then in the second video, Jake and I were recently engaged.  How awkward. :)

Mom, Jake, Lila and I went to Marquette on the 22nd to look at used vehicles.  Mom wanted an AWD vehicle.  Her and Dad have lived in the UP for 20+ years and have never owned one.  Lila was pretty good and I was surprisingly patient as Mom and Jake looked around and test drove vehicles (maybe I am growing up after all).  Mom liked sitting by Lila in the backseat and fed her some french fries.  (Lila sucked on them a little bit.)  We stopped by Aunt Kootzie's to see her and Uncle Ricky.  Jake had never been to their place.  So we got to visit with them a little.  Mom ended up buying a 2009 Subaru Legacy from a small place in Marquette, Jon's Auto.  Jake helped her a lot.  She sold her Buick to Aunt Gina, who's giving it to Jeffrey.  Good timing.  It's a great car and my mom deserves it!

We did Christmas on the 22nd before bed.  It was fun and simple and sweet.  Not a lot of presents, but I don't care about that at all anymore.  We got Mom a nice fleece from LL Bean, a Packers shirt, and A Christmas Carol on DVD.  We got Dad a fleece from Lands' End.  We got Emily the Emma miniseries.  Lila got a toy cell phone and music toy from my parents (it has lights and music and a little keyboard and microphone and book on it).  My parents gave Jake, Emily, and I $100 each, which is so generous of them.  I also got Beauty and the Beast from Dad; I told them I wanted to start my Disney collection. :)  I also got mittens.  And an ugly sweater from Mom to wear to next year's Ugly Sweater party, and it really is the UGLIEST sweater I've ever seen! lol.  So that was fun.  We all watched A Christmas Carol together.  We put up the tree Sunday night, I think.  Mom didn't really want to, but we all helped.

Lila loved Bella the dog.  Jake said that he likes Bella a little bit more now that his daughter loves her so much. :)  She would hold Bella's ball and when Bella would sniff it or try to take it from her she would get so excited and smile and laugh.  And she would pant whenever she saw her, or any animal for that matter.  In Ironwood we would look at deer out the window (sometimes there were 8 of them in the yard) and she'd point and pant excitedly.  We visited Josie, the kitty my mom rescued who now lives with the Bernsons, and Lila loved that too.

Lila learned how to climb stairs!  She loved climbing the stairs and my parents were so kind as to help her do it over and over.  She could climb all the stairs from the basement to the kitchen by herself!  I was so impressed!  But what she loved most of all is when my parents would hold her hands and she would walk up them like a grown up.  It was so cute.

Pat Bonczyk visited us for a little.  He's starting his Masters degree at University of Louisville in Kentucky.  Some kind of music degree.  He hasn't really changed at all.  Made us laugh a lot.  Talked about how he interviewed for a bunch of jobs after he graduated with his bachelors.  When the interviewers would ask what something interesting about him was, he told them that he was a cat person, lol.  Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny.  He asked me if becoming a mother has changed my world view at all.  Nope.

Saw an advertisement on TV for "Made in the UP" t-shirts and onesies.  Mom and Dad were in the room.  I said to Mom, "Did you know that Lila was made in the UP?" She did not like that, lol.  Dad didn't hear.  I had just spent a week with the Betzolds, where that kind of thing is funny.

I went grocery shopping with Dad and that was nice.  Just picked up a few things for dinner.  That's how my parents operate: they decide what they want for dinner in the morning and then go to the grocery store to pick up the meat/produce they need.  Which is why I think I'm not so great at meal planning and grocery shopping :)  On the way to visit Uncle Rudy a few weeks ago, he was driving the truck, going 70 down the freeway.  He hit a patch of black ice and went off the road into the median.  He said it was crazy and he completely lost control.  For a second he thought it was going to flip, but he could barely see anything because of the snow so doesn't even really know what happened.  But, miraculously, his truck ended up back on the side of the road.  He thinks it's a miracle and blessing from God that he doesn't have one scratch on his truck and that he's safe.  Awesome.

We went to church there on the 19th, and I was glad that we got to.  We hadn't been there since Christmas the previous year, so no one had met Lila.  There were a lot of people there (for Escanaba).  Peggy Schmidt said that Megan recently emailed her one of the letters I wrote Lila and she thought it was so beautiful.  James is a senior this year.  Just found out today that they are moving to Montana!  Don't know what'll happen to that little branch without them.  Heidi Wilber just had her fifth baby, a boy named Saul.  Sister Hecksel got to meet Lila; Claire just had her third baby in November, a boy named Zander.  Wes and Amberly Schmidt have a 5 month old baby that's SO tiny!  He's still wearing 0-3 month clothes.  She loved meeting Lila.  Katie (Allen) Grant was there and had just been sealed to her husband (Jason, from Green Bay--they met at the youth conference in Nauvoo) the day before.  She has some tattoos now and is moving to Alaska soon.

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