Leimamo’s Life

It was five years since I last saw my eldest son, Bulla, in person. We have done the gramcam thingy, you know webcam with gramma. I was so thrilled when they finally walked out of the airport door. I rushed to my grandchildren and I scared my youngest grandson. I thought since I look so much like my cousin, who he spends a lot of time with in Boston, that he would think I was her and greet me with hugs and kisses. But I guess we don’t look THAT much alike afterall because it scared the shit out of him. My grand daughter on the other hand is older so she wasn’t too afraid of me, she just thought I was crazy. Their mother probably thought I was crazy too, we had never met until now. When my son first walked out, I didn’t recognize him, but then I saw my husband walking behind him then it clicked. Damn, that boy grew! He’s still handsome though.

After all the luggage was loaded into the van, we all got ourselves situated. All of us except my grandson. He refused to get into the car seat. I asked if he rides in a car seat at home and they said yes. So Bulla tried to settle him down by taking him out of the van for a few minutes to let him calm down. Then my grandson, ‘Kaika, pointed to a Lexus that was parked beside me and said, “I want to go in that car, I don’t like this one.” I got out of the driver’s seat and walked over to them, then I pointed to the Lexus and said, “I want that car too but for now, we’re riding this one.” while pointing to my ‘93 Ford Aerostar. Hey, don’t laugh, it’s only got 81K miles on it because it’s been in storage during our time in Japan. Anyway, back to the story. So ‘Kaika is now confused about the car thingy and my son slides him back into the van and slowly eases him into the carseat, get him strapped in and we’re off like a prom dress on the Homecoming Queen.

On that super long drive home, Megs keeps calling to see how much longer before we arrive so we keep her updated. I thought she was calling to gauge when she should start warming up the food that I cooked the night before. But NOOOOO. When we finally get home, 2 1/2 hours later, the food hasn’t been warmed up, the kids are hungry and tired. My brother came over to see the kids and have dinner with us too. So after everything was warmed and set out, we ate like there was no tomorrow.

The last time my son visited us in Hawaii, we didn’t really get to do much with him because we were still working, but this time, we drove around and took them to the park and to the U-Pick your own strawberry farm where my son got his first job, some 9 years ago. We drove to Coronet Bay to show his family where we used to go crabbing when we lived here the first time. We parked at Deception Pass Bridge so they could walk on the bridge and take pictures. I took them to my favorite shrimp shack and bought a few pounds of cooked shrimp that we ate on the way home. When my youngest son flew in with his girlfriend and their son, I took the two moms and the all the grandkids (4) to Chuck E. Cheese because that was one of the things I had promised myself to do for them. They loved it and I loved that they loved it.

When the day came for them to leave, I was sad to see them go. I’ll miss our grandchildren until we get to see them again. I hope that won’t be another five years from now. Until that time comes, we’ll have to take advantage of today’s technology and Gramcam as much as possible so they won’t forget us.

I’ve loaded just a few pictures at the gallery but I’ll be adding more later.