When being an expat well and truly sucks.

My grandma died yesterday and I can't go to the funeral. This sucks. My grandfather died last year and I couldn't go to that one either. That sucked. Unfortunately, last minute international flights (particularly in the summer time) aren't cheap.

Enough whining about that, let me tell you about my grandma.

Here she is with her boys!

She was a lovely Grandma who knitted lots of things for all her granddaughters (not sure if my cousin, Craig, ever got anything knitted), bought us our yearly pair of clogs, got all us girls matching shiny roller skate jackets (yes!), took us camping, made us yummy food, and thought her sons (my dad and uncles) walked on water. 

I think my favorite story about Grandma happened when my dad was a teenager. Dad was at the town fair was hit by a race car which had gone off the track and broke his leg. Since he couldn't ride his bike, she took over his paper route and got her picture in the local paper delivering the papers! Sassy!

One of the most random memories is of a trip we took to a farm shop in Everett. I'm fairly certain it was just me and her. Why my sister wasn't there? No idea. Or maybe she was and I don't remember. Sorry Julie! We went to this farm shop and we bought Colby Jack cheese, which I had never tried before and have loved ever since. I don't think it's any sort of coincidence that a good memory for me involves cheese. We came back to the house and I had a ham and cheese sandwich, sitting at the table on a barrel stool, with a jewel-colored cushion, on the screened-in, astro-turfed carport. Perfection.

I am a lucky girl to have had such awesome grandparents and great-grandparents! Seriously, I just have an awesome family full stop. One day I asked Wes what he was thinking about and he said, 'How nice your family is.' 

Nice doesn't even begin to describe them.  They were willing to burn their retinas for these pictures!

The Sproats

 The Furrys