40th Anniversary Party

One of the highlights of my time in New York was a surprise 40th Anniversary Party that my sister, aunt, some of my Mom's friends, and I threw for my parents. Their actual anniversary isn't until December, but with everyone gathered together this summer it was the perfect time to celebrate. Also, they were completely surprised. My sister and her boyfriend Joe went on a half hour walk with them, and when they got back, food was set up, decorations hung, and friends and family packed the living room. It was terrific.

 

One of the quirkier elements of my parents' wedding was their choice of plush bride and groom mice as their wedding cake toppers. These weren't the originals, but close enough.

 

The food was plentiful and delicious!

 

In the middle of the party my sister and I made a surprise entrance dressed in original, hand sewn bridesmaid dresses carrying bouquets of poinsettias. Yes, two sentimental bridesmaids saved their dresses for forty years!! It was so funny.

 

And speaking of bridesmaids, four of the five bridesmaids were in attendance and are still close friends of my mother. It is a beautiful thing.

 

Three of my dad's brothers were at the party. This is as close to a hug as they get.

There were toasts and nice things shared about my parents and their lives together.

 

There was dancing!

 

It was wonderful to celebrate my parents' marriage and commitment to each other. I know my life has been blessed in countless ways by their honoring of the vows they made forty years ago. Forty years together is a lot of love, a lot of forgiveness, a lot of tolerance, a lot of good times, some bad times, and a lot of life together.

 

As part of the decorations, I printed out large photo collages of them together through the years. They were high school sweethearts! We have a picture of them dancing together at prom! It is very cute. I loved going through pictures of our family through the years. We have been so blessed.

 

 

 

 

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!! Love you!

Great Grandma's House

An important part of our time in New York was spending time with my Grandma.

 

It was the first time she and Benjamin got to meet.

 

She is several years into her Alzheimer's diagnosis and we weren't sure how well she would be doing by the time we got to see her. She is doing pretty well. She is still able to live by herself in her own home, although with quite a bit of assistance and probably not for too much longer. I don't think she knew exactly who we were most of the time, but she was loving and welcoming and seemed happy to have us there. Especially the boys. She loves little boys. We made cookies while we visited with her, and she loved that too.

 

We used her old cookie cutters, and she kept sharing the memories she had of her own mother making cookies with the same cookie cutters. That makes five generations. That's a lot of cookies and a lot of love.

 

We enjoyed several meals with the Nascas around her table in the dining room.

 

 

It's amazing how so many small, simple Sunday dinners together slowly build into something so important and real and solid. Her family is the work of my Grandma's life, and we have all been so blessed to gather around her table.

Van Buren Bay

From Nauvoo, we drove to western New York, to the idyllic little community on Lake Erie where I spent several weeks every summer growing up, Van Buren Bay. It is a place my boys love, too. The home that my grandparents owned and welcomed us to each year is now owned by my mom and her sister, and it is a place they spent summers when they were growing up. There is something moving about watching generations of children loving and playing in the same places; racing bikes along the same streets, digging on the same beach, watching July 4th fireworks and sunsets from the same seawall. My mom and aunt put a lot of work into their home at Van Buren, and we are blessed that our generation is able to offer our children many of the same magical experiences that I remember from my childhood.

The Fourth of July always starts with a bicycle parade through the neighborhood, followed by donuts and juice. I don't think there is a more picture-perfect storybook place to celebrate the Fourth of July than Van Buren. It ends every year with parties, bonfires, and fireworks all along the bay.

 

Another long tradition is the tea party on the beach. We use a small tea set that my mom played with when she was a little girl and have tea (herbal, in our case) and mini cupcakes. Kids get to add as much sugar and milk as they want to their tea. Here is a picture of my cousins, friends, and me a long time ago.

Here are our children, sipping from the same tea cups and eating cupcakes baked in the same mini tins. It is kind of amazing to me, really.

 

 

 

 

Many of the best times at Van Buren happen on the beach. My aunt brought her boat and my cousin Michael generously spent many hours pulling people on tubes or water skiis. There was a bocce set, a sail boat, kayaks, very warm and reasonably clean water, perfect beach weather the whole two weeks we were there, and lots of shovels and sand to dig in. The first day we were there, I woke up at 7:30 in the morning and Joseph was already on the beach. He didn't come back up until it got dark a little after 9 that night. 

 

This year was extra special because our entire extended family was there - all 27 of my Ambrose grandparents' descendants and spouses/fiancees/boyfriends.  It was the first time we'd all been together since 1995, and now there are quite a few more of us. Van Buren is where many of our best family memories have happened, and it was great to all be together there again.

 

The Nasca contingent:

 

My cousins and me: 

 

The old folks, my mom and her sister and brother.

 

There was also tennis, a trip to a small amusement park Midway, plenty of meals together, and time with cousins. It was a good time.

Little Pioneer Children

One morning in Nauvoo all the cousins played at Pioneer Pastimes, a place for children to play old time games and dress in bonnets and vests like little pioneers. There are two little log cabins with tin cookware, baby dolls, some fake sheep, washboards, some school slates, and other fun things. It was wonderful to see all the kids, even the older girls, really embrace the experience and have fun; they played together for hours. The moms called kids in for cookies, water was fetched, the men folk guarded the cabin at night, there was a hunting expedition, some laundry got done, cows got milked, pasture was fenced in, babies were taken care of, and the Nauvoo Bass Band even stopped by and led the kids around in a parade and let them check out their instruments. There were so many good pictures of these beautiful kids, I just couldn't narrow it down any more. So here are a bunch of little pioneer children.