So things may get a little spotty around here…I’m getting ready to embark on an 11 day trip back to Connecticut to visit with family (while David and pups hold down the fort back here). I saw my folks in February but haven’t seen my sister or nieces since November and boy has it made me homesick. Typically they come out once a year to visit as well, but my sister has embarked on year round grad school and my nieces, well they’re teenagers and planning ahead and stealing time from friends to hang out with their Auntie in the Colorado mountains reaaaallly isn’t a priority, if you know what I mean.
11 days with family and away from David is a long time, but we notice that when I only go up for a week that I haven’t “tired” of anyone and then I get homesick when I get back and start doing the “maybe we should move back” talk, which David really dislikes as he hates the East Coast. By the end of day 11, me thinks I’ll be clamoring to get back home (and I mean that with the utmost love, family!) and will have my homesickness cured for the next 6 months *wink*
But there are many things I’m looking forward to….like:
- the comfort and security of being in the company of my small nuclear family
- having someone cook yummy food for me everyday (and with my family, that means LOTS of grilling – yum!)
- hanging out in lawn chairs in the green, green grass and amongst the abundant deciduous trees – both my sister and parents have great backyards
- never having a moment of dry skin (although the curse of that is wicked humidity, hello Diana Ross hair)
- Dunkin Donuts coffee; as a New Englander, I grew up on the manna and there are no DD shops in Colorado! I usually gain a couple pounds each visit back to CT from OD’ing on the creamy, sweet concoction (I refuse to do anything non-fat or sugar free when I’m there…it’s an all out “large-light-and-sweet-coffee” dessert-like beverage I drink multiple times a day when I’m there); oh the buzz I’ll have!
- Swimming leisurely – both my parents and sis have pools (the only way to cool off as kids pre-AC days) and my parents, who have chilled out tremendously since retiring 10 years ago, are big “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, put the Jimmy Buffet on” kind of folks, so they’ll surely be placing an adult beverage in my hand while I soak lazily in the pool
Yep, these are my folks! (In Cancun this past spring)
- Playing card games – this is a popular tradition in my family; we don’t all sit around watching TV, we play games and games generate laughter…I always look forward to the nightly board and card games
- Simple things like running errands with my sister – as mentioned, she works full-time, has 2 teenage daughters, is a grad student and is clearly a busy mom; when I go home, oftentimes she is so busy that our time spent together is running errands with her and frankly I love it; grocery store run? game on. dropping a teen off at an ice cream joint and back again in two hours? no problem. a run to Staples to pick up supplies for a school project (for either her or her girls)? cool. It may sound strange, but I miss these nuances to the day, I miss being in her presence and oftentimes the deepest conversations occur in the minutiae of the day
My sis and me in Vegas in '09
- Seeing the ocean; I was warned when moving to the mountains that my almost 30 years of life was always near a body of water. We always lived and vacationed relatively near the ocean and moving to a land-locked state would be a tough transition for a girl who had the salty air and water in her blood. (Even David and I were married on the CT shoreline). Granted the beauty of the mountains has helped to off-set my longing for the shore, but I still miss it. So my parents have made plans to take me to the ocean in Rhode Island where I spent every weekend as a child camping (see that post here); even my girlfriend who lives on the CT shoreline has offered to pick me up and bring me back to her shoreline for a day; California it ain’t but I still love it and the tranquility the shoreline brings
Charlestown Breachway, Rhode Island
So with that in mind, my posts may be sporadic (in frequency and in theme) but hope you don’t mind tagging along with me on my trip back to my childhood home. 
Funny, I wrote a post very recently about the ocean vs. mountains. Colorado is beautiful (my mother lives there), but there’s just something about the ocean — and you’re right, maybe it’s the smell — that can’t be beat. And I’ll take my Diana Ross hair and armpit sweats over my notoriously dry Colorado skin any time.
P.S. Your parents look like my kind of people! Have fun visiting your family and eat lots of excellent grilled seafood!
Thanks Katie! But you haven’t seen my DR hair!