The Long Goodbye

I'm not exactly sure when my daughter told me that she and her husband had decided to move their family from Oregon (40 minutes from our home) to Ohio (2000 miles from our home) to be near her husband's family.  I think it was a year ago.  But since that day to this one, it's been one long difficult time for me.  My daughter has had a hard year, fixing up their house to sell, keeping it "staged" for showings, getting it sold, packing everything for the move... and now it's all done and she and the girls fly out in the morning.  Her husband will drive to Ohio after spending a week here finalizing his job and things.  

We've tried to spend as much time with the girls as possible.  We took them to the beach, have kept them for overnights, took them to lunch, etc.  As the "end" neared, on Sunday we took them shopping for snacks for the airplane trip.  Paige, the 3 year old grabbed this huge jar of cheese puffs and wanted to take it on the plane.. I just had to get a photo of them.  Jenna thought it was funny, too.

We also got them some tiny "LaLaLoopsy" dolls to take on the plane.  My daughter told me that Paige had pulled the yarn out of both pompoms on both their Sock Monkeys, so I brought supplies to fix them both before.. they.. were ......  gone.

Here is Paige's monkey with a new pompom.

Here is Jenna's monkey with a new pompom.

Last evening our daughter had a pizza "party" for family to see them one last time.  Here is our youngest son, Travis.. giving Paige one last hug.

My sister and her husband, he's having fun with our youngest grandsons.

My younger sister picked up Paige and carried her and held her until she had to put her in the car.. her last time... and the look on my sister's face made me choke up.  

We then went to our daughter's house to load up their tv armoire which they'd given to Travis.. and all the kids were racing around in circles on the front grass and having the most fun... and then we thought we should get.. one... last....... photo of them together.  ::choke::

Jenna, Hayden, Caleb, Michael, Gabriel and Paige.  The grandkids.

The 2 older boys are my middle/older son's.  The girls are my daughter's.  The little boys are my youngest son's.  And this is the hilarious results of us trying to get one good photo of 6 tired, over-excited kids.

Do forgive me for the backdrop.. it's the garage and the back of the fireplace.. certainly these were not fancy, staged, professional photos.   Just real kids and real life.

There was an attempted escape.

Note the fun and cheesy "CHEESE" faces on the little boys.  Note the baby girls going.. ewww.. don't touch me.... LOL  I must say, the older boys did their best to hold them all together.  

Today we went back one ... last... time.. and took the girls to lunch.. then to Finnegan's Toy Shop in Bridgeport Village near our daughters ex-home.  Here is Jenna.

Here is Paige.

And so.. life will now be different.  I just hope I can figure out how to be happy with it.  Wish me luck. And just to warn you.. people have told me ad infinitum.. how it will be fine... I can "Skype" with them and talk with them on the phone and maybe see them once a year.  And I am not consoled one bit.  Not ONE LEAST BIT.

The End.