Grandparents

My grandparents were very involved in my sister's and my life (I don't know if that is grammatically correct or not and google didn't help me).  We spent most school breaks, parts of the summer and other holidays with them.  They came along on field trips and other school activities.  I even lived with them for just over 2 years.  For me they truly were and are second parents to me. 

It was my hope that my children would have the same relationship with their grandparents that I was so fortunate to have.  Danny's mom is a very experienced grandma, she has 9 grandchildren (Lynden is #7 and Alyssa #9) - for those of you keeping track at home she can field a baseball team.  She was living in the Okanagan when Lynden was born and had a chance to be around for the first few months of his life before moving back to the coast.  She still made trips up to visit and with us back in the lower mainland (living, literally, next door) she gets to spend a lot of time with us and them.  Danny's dad, who only has 3 grandchildren, is a very proud grandpa.  I wish we still lived closer to him as I can see him being the cool outdoorsy grandpa, who takes the kids camping, fishing and teaching them all the things I don't want them to learn. 

Lynden and Alyssa are the only grandchildren on my side of the family.  It's a lot more grandparents, as I have step-parents, and the kids are treated like they have a lot of grandparents (they get spoiled!).  Even though we are closer we still don't get to see all of them as much as we'd like to.  My stepdad lives on the island, so it takes a lot of planning to visit with him but we always have a fun time.  My mom works long hours so it can be hard to match up our schedules.  My dad and stepmom are busy people, it seems like they're always on the go, but we try to see them on a monthly basis (although there's talk of them moving to the island as well).  My grandparents try to take Lynden for an afternoon every few weeks.  I love how they try to be as involved in his life as they were in mine.  I also love how excited Lynden gets when he knows he's going to see them and tells me about "papa noring" when he gets there.

It's hard knowing we now live in the same area as most of our family but still not be able to see them nearly as much as we want to.  I'm used to everything being pre-planned before we come to visit and having designated times to see people, although it was never enough time and someone was usually upset when we left because it just wasn't long enough (when you have 4 or 5 days, sometimes less, it's hard to give everyone the one on one time we want).  It was almost easier because people would make the time to see us for our short visit but now it's trying to fit us into their every day life and routines.  In some cases it doesn't feel like the effort we try to put in to see people is reciprocated, and it breaks my heart.  Our kids are entertaining, loving, funny and all around (mostly) enjoyable little people to be around and it saddens me deeply to think there are people who don't seem to want to be apart of their lives.  In the long run it's them who are missing out, not our children since they are so fortunate to have such amazing family in their lives.