Oh so precious family time

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As I have shared numerous times over the last few weeks (and you’re probably tired of hearing about it already), my parents were here for 2,5 weeks at the beginning of the month and let me just say that we had the most wonderful time. Yes, it’s nice to have my bedroom back (ha!), but otherwise I could have spent another few weeks hosting them at our home. They’re so easy-going and I just miss having them around already.

I don’t know if you have a good relationship with your parents, if you live far from them or close, if you wish to see them more often or catch yourself thinking that seeing them a couple of times during the year is enough.

I fall in the ‘I wish I could see them more often’-camp. My parents are awesome (naturally) and I think I am one of the few people who can honestly say that I don’t ever get tired being around them. I’ve always had a very good, close relationship with my parents and I miss not living close to them.

Well, you should have thought about that before you moved 6000 miles half-way across the world, you might want to say. True. But this also means it makes the times that I do get to spend with my parents that much sweeter.

As I have done in the past, I’ll do a couple of recap posts for the time that my parents were visiting. It helps me keep a record of our time together and also re-live some of the memories we made (which sometimes helps with or exacerbates the homesickness depending on the day).

My Dad pretty much decided on a whim this summer that they would come and visit again. They had just been here (together with my sister and her family) last year and I didn’t expect them to come back so soon (they’ve come every 3-4 years on average over the last 15 years and I usually try to go back to Germany about once a year), but I guess being retired and more flexible with their time is a huge advantage now.

My Dad was originally looking into a fall getaway to the North Sea or Mediterranean, but when he compared travel + lodging prices with flight prices to California, it turned out that California would be the same price (or less) and since I was able to host them at our house this time (no lodging costs), it was basically a no-brainer. He called me sometime back in June to ask if I was ok with them visiting in the fall and I couldn’t believe he’d think that he even had to ask!!

Since my Mom had had the somewhat invasive kidney surgery in July and is still on the road to recovery, we decided to make this a low-key, play-it-by-ear kinda vacation.

I did have a few cool things planned in advance though (we’ll get to that in a bit) and we had agreed on mostly trying to do/see things that they hadn’t seen on previous visits.

It was just the perfect excuse to stay (mostly) local and explore more of our immediate surroundings. I was able to take some time off from work and it was just nice, so nice, to be able to hang out and  cook together without rushing from one destination to the next.

It didn’t get boring though – far from it. Stay tuned for the actual vacation recaps!

Do you love being around your family? How often do you see your parents?

  1. Can’t wait to hear about the cool things you had planned….. Mom just booked her flight and is coming mid March for 3 Month.
    Unfortunately we weren’t close for the longest time but that has changed a few years ago. Now I’m looking forward spending time with her and making her vacation even better then the last one!

  2. Even though you see your parents infrequently, you probably actually spend more time with them than I do with my parents. Although maybe that is just the case for the last couple of years and I imagine that’s been impacted by the fact that they are retired! My parents live about 3-3.5 hours away but they are still working full time (actually more than full time since they own a business and have not managed to step back much as they’ve gotten older unfortunately) and they have 2 homes (their home in ND and the lake home)… So life is busier for them than I’d like it to be, especially since they are in their late 60s! They will occasionally come to Minneapolis for events like Julia Child Night but mostly if I want to see them, I have to go to the lake. I only made it there twice this summer which is probably an all-time low for me but the older I get, the harder it is to be gone many weekends in summer. I’m hoping that they retire in the next couple of years so they will have more flexibility to come to Minneapolis for the occasional week or weekend! I love spending time with my family so would definitely prefer more family time!

    All that said, I am so glad you had 2.5 wonderful weeks with your parents. Your plan of staying local sounds perfect as it’s less logistics to figure out and more relaxing to have the same home base for the whole trip. I mean it’s fun to go to lots of new places but it’s nice that there is plenty to see and do in the region where you live!!I Can’t wait to hear what all you guys did while they were here!! Do you know when you will see them next? Or is that TBD?

  3. I love my family. Especially having my mom up here. She is one of my soulmates (my husband is my other), and even if we are just sitting and working on things side by side, I just so value having her around me.

  4. Yes, yes, yes! I love my mom and adore spending time with her. Mom time is my favorite time. I’m so glad you got to spend some one-on-one time with your parents and I can’t wait to read all about your adventures. <3

  5. I love that they decided to come visit you and that you guys had such a wonderful time together! Family is the best and I just love spending time with mine! Hugs xxx

  6. Well you know how I feel about my family and being around them. I really wish I could see them more often and so wish they lived nearby. I sometimes still regret moving here because I’m so far from them. Not much I can do about that now though.

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