on the last night of our spring break trip to puerto vallarta, tripp made reservations for us at the vista grill. it was a beautiful little restaurant nestled up in the hillside. and as the name suggests, it had the most spectacular view of the entire city. add in a glorious sunset…and well….all i can say is that it was utterly magical.
tripp and i were sitting there at the table with kelsey. and i knew what he was thinking. i could see it in his eyes. it was one of those special moments in our lives…one of those moments that you know you’ll look back on when you’re eighty. one of those moments that you’ll remember forever. surrounded by stunning natural beauty, just the three of us, it was magic. pure and simple. and we felt blessed. our hearts full of gratitude for the magic of that moment.
the whole trip was pretty special really. getting to have one on one time with our girl. we didn’t think she’d be coming home at all to be honest, but her spring break plans with friends fell through.
before she got home, tripp and i were sitting at dinner one night. looking forward to seeing kelsey. looking forward to our trip. and tripp remarked that it could very well be the last time we take a trip just the three of us. now a few years ago, that kind of comment would have sent me into a complete empty-nesting tailspin. but i’m in a totally different place now. and i don’t fret about motherhood and needing a purpose anymore.
thank you jesus.
the truth is that tripp is completely right on. a year from now my daughter will be getting ready to graduate from college.
please. don’t even ask me how that is possible. i swear to you she was just learning to ride her bike with no training wheels.
can someone please tell me where the time goes.
this time next year she’ll be making plans for a ‘real’ job. which may be somewhat close by. but i have a feeling that more likely she’ll move away some. i know my girl and she has big plans and dreams. and she’s ready. she’s ready to get out there and get on with her own life.
anyway, the whole point of me telling you about all of this is because this was the music that was playing the background of my mind yesterday. and i will be honest and tell you that my empty-nesting was having a bit of a flare up. well ok, it was partly that, but i think more than anything it was withdrawal from having her company for over a week. because i do love this child so. but man i do soooo LIKE her. and i was missing her.
so between the two of those things plus a sort of shitty week at work, i had given myself a really good case of the poor-pitiful-kellys.
i’ve learned enough about life in these past few years to know that gratitude is the secret weapon against pity-parties. and so i decided that, even though i wasn’t really in the mood to work on it, i would get our vacation pictures into my project life album.
anytime that there is something special about a week where i have a bunch of pictures to include, i like to use these smaller page protectors as inserts.
and as i had hoped, working on my project life album was completely therapeutic ~ my whole attitude changed. to the extent that i decided to make an old-school scrapbook page to tell this story. because i also know that one day i will want to remember this.
this is why i love scrapbooking.
kelly
Hi Kelly – I’m an empty nester for about four years now. They lived home for two years after college, then moved out to start their own lives. If I book a vacation, they will drop everything and join us. Whether it’s a week at the beach, a trip to Italy or a weekend on the Cape – they love a free ride (and maybe… spending time with us too).
Have no fear Kelly, it only gets better.
thank you so much margie for the words of encouragement. so nice to have you stop by! xoxo
Whenever you write about the empty nest and about how much you love your girl, I can so identify with it. I just came back from four days visiting my son and his girlfriend and am now missing them and wishing they were closer. Luckily my other two boys are in town and I see them often. It does get harder to plan trips together (probably a bit easier with only one) because of their work schedules. I remember having that same feeling when my youngest was about to graduate and we planned a cruise for the whole family — this might be the last time. But we’ve managed to have a couple more times since then when we can make it work. The best thing is when your children grow up and you like them as well as love them, and they seem to like you too! I would go back to when they were young in a heartbeat but since I can’t do that, sharing time with them as adults is the next best thing and sometimes it’s even better.
Okay, didn’t mean to write a book but so often your blog posts just speak to me. I feel the same way about scrapbooking. So happy I found that hobby so many years ago!
well terri you just leave me a book anytime you want. i know you have such a great relationship with your boys. and that sure does give me so much to look forward to. thank you dear friend. xoxo
Well you just KNOW I’m totally going YEEEEHAAAA on this post. Yep. Can you hear me down there yelling up here? I hope so. oxoxo Pam
why can’t my pages be as good as yours? Such great therapy for your soul.
I’m thinking this might not be the last family vacation. It may be a few years for her to settle into her future, but I feel you’ll be taking a few more together. Since both of my kids have left home we haven’t had a family vacation. Many years have passes and guess what…we’re going on a family vacation this summer to the beach! I can’t wait! Hang in there, somewhere in the future you’ll be planning another trip!