Fast Trip

Disclaimer: this is really long with lots of pictures so that family can get all the pictures that I took...sorry!

When Memere passed away, I knew that we were going to go to the services since we weren't able to go to Peperes. So we packed up the kids and flew to Boston. We stayed at a great hotel just down the street from my Aunt Marie's house.

Julie was really excited to see the snow when we landed, so we couldn't wait to get her out in it. We bundled her all up with her new "Cars" snow boots from Walmart and out we went. Uncle Justin jumped right in and we expected Julie to follow. She took two steps into the snow and a huge gust of wind knocked her right over, face first into the snow! She screamed, cried and ran to the door......so that was the end of the snow.

We went inside and did something we were a little more comfortable with.....swimming!

After a really fun lunch with my Aunt Marian and Uncle Tom we went back to the hotel to get ready for the services the next day.

First thing Monday morning, we got up to go pay our respects to my Memere. It was so hard, but so great to see all of the family together. There was a nice mass afterward, followed by a reception put on by the church ladies. It was delicious. We got to mingle with all the people who knew and loved Memere and Pepere. A girl who lived up the street from them who I used to play with all the time was there, I hadn't seen her in about 8 years. So that was really great.

After going back to the hotel, we went to my Aunt Marie's and ate leftovers and shared Memere stories. We talked about how Memere would always end a conversation with "and a partridge in a pear tree!" in a singsong voice, and how she had a really cool necklace with a charm that looked like a basket (which is now in my possession) and how she and Pepere would give each other their wedding rings to keep safe whenever they went anywhere like the hospital or surgery. That is about the point we found the old home movies. There was one summer that Justin and I spend a lot of time traveling with my grandparents and our cousins, Tim (who is a year older than Justin) and Keith (who is my age). And apparently my grandpa got a lot of it on tape. We laughed so hard at that video, hearing Pepere yell at us and Memere yell at him for yelling at us! Seems like it was yesterday.

As we were leaving Marie's house, we noticed Julie feeling a little warm, and sure enough, she had a decent temperature. So she and John slept in while Andy and I went to the burial the next day. It was a short ceremony, followed by a great lunch at Memere's favorite place where I ordered her favorite...the lobster roll! All my mom's siblings were there.

After lunch we went over to my grandparent's house to help my Uncles Charlie and Jimmy get some things done. We made a huge stack of things to be shipped to California and laughed at some of the silly things we found. It was overwhelming seeing the house so empty, but perhaps it gave us all a little closure as well. As we were leaving, Julie (who had a temp of 103.6) said "Bye house!" in her cheery, sweet voice and we all could not help but smile and say good-bye.

The next day we just prepared to go home. I know we won't be visiting the east coast as much as we used to. I am sad about that but at the same time it will give us more of a chance to explore other vacation destinations. I will miss 40 Congress Street, it was like a second childhood home. But, most of all, I will miss my grandparents. I will miss getting their cards on holidays, I will miss talking to them and them asking about all my friends and even my pets. I am sad that Julie will not remember them and Andy was never able to meet them. But I know they are in their lives, watching over us all, laughing at us every time we call our kids "goones" or "finke" and smiling when they hear Julie call my mom Memere.