It just isn’t right for parents and grandparents to live so far from their kids and grandkids.  Let this be known as my formal complaint about the whole situation.  I don’t want to be 10 hours from them.  I will settle for 5 hours between us . . no more!  Good luck with that, Mrs. Judy!

This will have to keep me going til I can see them again.

Adalina is such a happy baby.  Her parents have fun together and fun with her.  This is the kind of posing that was going on while I was trying to get a picture.

Crazy family!!

As I am preparing to leave Nevada, MO this trip, it struck me that this is the last time I’ll probably ever come here.  When we’ve moved from other locations, it was always a clean break — we all left together but with Chad having stayed behind in Nevada, I returned to visit.  Next time I visit them, it will be at their new location . . in an area where I will not know my way around, will have no friends.  Even with all the moves we’ve made, it makes me sad for Chad and Nicole to leave their friends in Nevada, to leave Nicole’s family . . she has the sweetest grandparents and I know they are going to be so sad about them leaving.  Her parents will miss them!

There are mostly good memories from our time in Nevada and it makes me a bit sad to think I’ll probably never come back here.  There’s no reason to return unless Chad and Nicole end up back here some day, which could happen.

When we lived in Nevada is when Chad left for college.  That was hard for me.  Then we moved away and he stayed behind.  That was hard for me.  But, time marches on and I suppose this is how life is supposed to happen.

Before leaving, I snapped a few photos from Chad’s porch.

The park across the street from Chad’s apartment.  The only time I remember going there was for a political rally or two.  I never see many people there but it’s a cute little park.  The leaves are pretty and are beginning to fall.

From Chad and Nicole’s porch, I can see the top of the courthouse on the town square.  So many of the towns in Missouri have beautiful squares with the courthouse sitting in the center.

Chad’s little run down storage building is a bit picturesque with the leaves around it.

Time marches on . . whether we’re a willing participant or whether we kick and scream and fight to keep things the way they were.  Today, I feel a bit like a kicker and a screamer.  Like all parents, I’m so thrilled to see the man he’s become, to see the life he and Nicole have together with the baby but I sure do miss having my little boy around! On the other hand, if I still had my little boy, I wouldn’t have Nicole and Adalina and I can’t imagine life without them.