539 Miles to Grandma, and A.A. Milne Sums It Up

Grandmas are some of the sweetest people on Earth.  I sure treasure mine.  I appreciate her more and more as the years go by.  We've been so blessed that Grandma has been able to travel to Alaska yearly for the past several years.  She gets around amazingly well at 84 years old!  One of my dreams for years and years, has been for our family to spend time with my Grandma Dorothy in her own home.  A few years ago, I began praying for that to happen.  The summer before last, I thought that prayer was answered with a "yes", when Zachy Baby and I were blessed to tag along with my parents as they escorted Grandma back home to Wisconsin.

That was an amazing trip which I will always treasure!  I never would have guessed then, that we'd be so incredibly blessed as to have our whole family travel to see Grandma in her home just 2 year later.

We hustled to get there.  Two of my aunts from north-central Wisconsin were planning a family picnic for Saturday, and we really wanted to get to Grandma's house the evening before so we could have some chill time with her before the much-anticipated picnic.  So, last Friday, July 11, was spent motoring across the remainder of South Dakota, and then Minnesota and Wisconsin, for a grand total of 539 mostly prairie miles.  We put in our audio of On the Banks of Plum Creek, and got lost in the prairie lands of the early 1900's.  Imagine the excitement when we saw the turn-off for DeSmet, SD...and then again for Walnut Grove, MN! 

Finally, after hours and hours, we knew we were in Wisconsin.

We also knew just how much God loves us, when we turned off for gas and the gas station happened to be next to a cheese factory.  Simply blissful.  Those of you who have experienced the joy of squeaky curds know what I'm talking about!

Not much later, we pulled into Grandma's house.  What an incredible joy to be there with her, and to have the boys run up her steps and experience her home just as I had done as a child.  Precious, precious time. 

Those 4 days were filled to the brim with lots of talking and laughter, delicious food, Monopoly, cards, checkers, staying up way too late, and backyard hang-out time, including a bonfire.  And of course, we also trekked off to a picnic together!

Grandmas are some of the sweetest people on Earth, and so are Aunties.  Two of mine made an unforgettable family picnic happen on Saturday! 

I know how hard they must have planned and worked to make it happen...and we are so, so grateful.  Although not all of our beloved family could be there, most were.  I am still soaking it in. Unspeakable joy.

Wilcox family...all together!

Active Grandma Shirley pitching so low to li'l Emma

awww...5 days apart...5-yr-olds...2nd cousins

Finally Noah can climb big trees

Me and Baby Jase...pretty sure I'm his fave cousin, right?

Wait!  We didn't have gray in our beards last time we met?!

amazing, delicious, beautiful food

Zachy will follow his cuzzy Emma anywhere!  He's still talking about her.

My beloved cousin is so beautiful.  And I'm SO sweaty.

I could go on posting pics of this event forever.  It was just an all-around amazing and treasured day.  We got pics of the families altogether, and then one huge pic of ALL of us together.  So fun.