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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Going Home

The road to Mom's house began like this:

Encountering one of our first mountains of North Cacalacki (North Carolina) in Winston Salem, Pilot Mountain which is about 2 hours from where we live. This is about 6:30 in the morning on Friday. My oldest son took the passenger seat for this journey which also meant he was head road photographer. I had the brilliant idea of taking pictures of every leg of our journey. Oh those blessed camera cards. What did we ever do without having 592 pictures availiable to take at our finger tips???? I had so many shots that I could hardly pick a few for the purpose of this post so heed the warning--many many pictures of our short but sweet trip to NY follow in the form of collages of each leg/day of our trip. Without futher ado....
I should have posted a map but the main roads we travelled were 77, 19, 79, and 90 up to NY---our sights ranged from mountains, to mountains, to more mountains then a lake....a bigggggg lake (finally) as we headed closer to our destination of my dear Mother's and my soon to be Step-Father Craig's house. My children got a kick out of travelling through a mountain---I on the otherhand, was paranoid that it would surely cave in as we scurried through it as fast as I could (within the speed limit of course). Zack snapped away at my every "Photo OP" cry, although towards the end of our travels, he scolded back at me, "I know Mom the drill by now"!

So many times we take a trip and never stop anywhere other then the obligatory gas station and belly refueling stations, but this time I pulled over in West Virginia at the New River Gorge lookout and we took a break and soaked in some wonderous sights.


While it was a bit foggy, the view was mystical and magical in it's own way.




The grounds were dotted with beautiful foliage(which I'd love to paint someday), and the museum inside gave us an educational break as much as it did a feast for our eyes.



Nearly 12 and half hours we landed at the doorsteps of my Mom's, greeted with hugs and kisses and some delicious spaghetti and meatballs. It was the night before her wedding and you could barely tell she was a blushing bride wracked with nerves....instead she was smiling and laughing and enjoying the fullness of her house....and BOY was it full, as a matter of fact at any given moment there were 7 or 8 lil males running around. My sister's and I, as well as our cousins have had a surge of male offspring--which makes for interesting conversations as well as entertainment.

As we were driving to NY, my son pipes up from the backseat serious as all get out, "Mom, is Grandma pregnant?" (((BLECK..spit....LAUGH....pees her pants)))) "No!!! Why would you ask that?" "Because, that's why you get married, don't you?" ....ummmm no, that's just YOUR Mother.. LOL
"Mom, well then is she gonna get pregnant????" "NO! I hardly think so, son!"
"Mom, do babies come out of your butt???" ((Let's not go there just yet...please Lord, he's only 6))) "No, not your butt," I reply hoping the conversation ends right there, but of course, it doesn't. "Out of your belly then??" he asks, not letting it drop like I had hoped. "They kinda come out where a girl pees," I answer. "OUT OF YOUR BALLLS????? OUCHHHHHH" he screams.
I give up.
"No, girls don't have balls son!" I can hardly contain myself at this point. "Girls kinda have a tunnel...." "STOPPPP....I don't want to hear anymore!!"
Thank goodness...I didn't want to say anymore...yet!
Anyway--that's what conversations with boys are like!
After eating dinner and visiting, Mom had to go set up the hall so we took a ride through town and down to the lake which is right two blocks away from where my Mother lives. I have to show the boys where I grew up.....what it was like for me when I was their age. I drove around my hometown and reminisced how in some ways, it's almost as time has stopped and nothing has really changed...but so much really has.
I could still see my car parked by the lake with my friends and I leaning up on the guardrails on a Friday summer night waiting to see who was going to drive by next....horns beeping....laughing and giggling....waiting for that guy we covetted to stop. I could see us laying on the beach, browning ourselves like bacon in a frying pan, and then grabbing a hot dog at the hut with some curly fries laden with vinegar and ketchup. We drove down the road to restaurant row and I showed them where my first job was, only the Ponderosa (haha) is now Wing City.....the questions they asked brought back memories of fondness because no matter how long I've lived elsewhere, there will never be another place that I consider home other than NY.






Saturday, was Mom's wedding. It was simple, small, and elegant. It was also the first wedding that most of our extended family's children had been to. Almost all of them had either cameras or cell phones with picture taking capabilities and if you could have only seen and heard the mini "paparazzi" snapping away at the whole entire ceremony, it was hysterical. Someone (we won't mention any names, Sam) had a cell phone that made some kind of ca-ching ca-ching noise every time a snap went off and I about died with laughter everytime he did it----thankfully my Mom has a good sense of humor. She said if you thought it was funny from your view--imagine how I felt during the ceremony seeing all the flashes going off during the entire thing!! LOL





I think we are only missing 2 of the little ones in this picture. It was a casual wedding with primarily just family, and the kids had a ball!!! Look at all the boys!








After the wedding we headed over Mom's for some Margarita's and many many laughs with our family , old and new members. It was so good to have that time together and those memories to look back on.










The next 2 days comprised of Sister Days revisted. First with my lovely sister Becky---we took our kids for a day at the beach. There are several beaches along the lake, but we opted for the one closest to my Mom's as the weather looked omnious so we didn't want to be too far away if the clouds broke into thunder and lightening. The kids had a blast surfing the waves, gathering seaglass, and digging in the sand and rocks (sooooo many rocks) while Becky and I chatted then napped from our all night excursion with the girls and 2 guy cousins. I do mean practically all night..LOL. Wedding, Margaritas, then we bounced from 2 local beach bars down the road until 2:30 in the morning. I can't believe I used to stay out that late every Friday and Saturday. Now, once a year and it about kills me! So yes, Sister and I took a much needed break under the sun together. It was a great "Sister Day"






I couldn't leave the other Sister out in our short but sweet adventure, so our day comprised of taking our combined total of 5 boys to Darien Lake, which is an amusement and water park just outside of Buffalo. Sherry and I remarked at how much it had changed since we had been there as kids and teenagers. I remember walking and running around when I was a wee one...and here we are taking our kids to that very same place. Iknow it happens all the time...but it's weird thinking about it. I just got done changing there diapers and now I'm about to hand over the keys to my car to my oldest (well..figuratively in a couple of years..but you get my point). Where does the time go?






Yes...where does the time go. Before I knew it...we were on the road again, the road to our new home. Someday my kids will be travelling to see me in much the same way, reminiscing with their children, taking them to the sights we visited when they were growing up....and then they will be off again on their own life journey.
Maybe we can't go back, but we can always go home.












11 comments :

Anonymous said...

WOW!! JODI Great Pictures. We did have such a great time. I was lucky enough to have lets see 1,2,3,4,5 sister days all in one month. Something like that... I miss you already! Looking forward to our next sister day!
Love
Sherry
xoxoxo

Anonymous said...

Can I ask where abouts in NYS you were? I grew up on Lake Ontario, a TINY town just north of Brockport, spent summers working at Hamlin Beach State Park and hanging at the Lake... ahhh... road trips to Darien Lake, sizzling like bacon on the beach...
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!!
S-

Anonymous said...

Ok rub it in sister....at least I finally had my sister day at the beach. What a great weekend with all of us. All of us, our kids, and dad in the same house???? Oh my goodness it was amazing. I love you and miss you and the boys so much, I cried after y'all left. We need to come see you now.
Love and miss ya,
The other sister
Becky

Sarah and Jack said...

The where do babies come from convo is way, way, way too funny.

Heidi said...

What a great summary of your trip. Glad you're back safe and sounds. Hey, how do you do those photo collages?

Breanna said...

It sounds like you had an awesome adventure! We have had very, very similar talk regarding where babies come from. There is nothing like a long car ride to bring about interesting conversation.

Unknown said...

What a great post! Love all the photos and the birds & bees conversation is priceless! LOL

Dinah said...

It looks like you had a great trip and a great reunion kind of time with your family. Good for you! Thanks for all of the pictures, and ESPECIALLY the convo with the youngest one. Oh gosh...I laughed so loud at the "punchline". Don't your children just crack you up!!

Jodi Ohl said...

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments as always---I appreciate you visiting :)

To answer some of your questions and comments--I'm from Dunkirk, NY-which is right on Lake Erie, about 1/2 way between Erie, PA and Buffalo, NY. It's older town that used to be big in the steel industry way back when but that's all long gone, but it's still home :)

Heidi-I downloaded Googles Picasa2 program (which is really good and FREE)--anyway you can do a nice picture collage with that. Another option is from Flickr they have one on the website but I like using Picasa since it's already on my computer, there's no uploading.

About the birds and the bees--I think the real conversation is coming sooner than later--if y'all could only have heard what my youngest said tonight in the car!!! The convo's we have are too funny!

Sisters--I had a blast visiting with you, I wish we could do it more than once a year! :(

Anonymous said...

Well congratulations to Mom's marriage!!!!!!!! What a good roadtrip that must have been :)

Anastasia said...

Congrats to your mum!! what beautiful photos - love journeys like that...tiring but there is so much to see!