Airports, Hellos and Goodbyes!

I’m one of those who can get teary eyed watching OTHER people reunite or say farewell when passing through airports. I love the joyful reunions…my heart wrenches at the tearful goodbyes. I’m even a mess when it comes to seeing people’s dogs in kennels! For me, airports are walking talking hallmark cards waiting to happen!

Before I left Minnesota, we took some time to get the pictures of mom’s reaction to seeing me off of Auntie Joy’s “big girl” Camera -----all I had was my phone camera, so I’m glad that SHE thought of whipping it out and capturing this moment on film. ((Well, not REAL film, but digital..you know....you get me! ))

So here I sit, home again, going through photos and editing them down….

Mom said when she first saw me she thought I was someone who “looked like Bonnie” and it made her miss me. And then I got closer, and she saw it WAS me….and she just crumbled. And so did I!

There is nothing like a mother’s love ---and we held each other up at this point.

I don’t know HOW I thought that I was ever going to get pictures of this on my phone when I was wrapped in her arms, but you can see my phone is on! My lovely cousin Bethany is in the Atlanta hoodie behind us. She was IN on the surprise ;c)

Yep, she came OFF the plane carrying her stitchery in a big ziploc bag…like mother, like daughter!!

And you know the rest of the story…..it was a sweet two days! Now Auntie Joy has followed my mom home to Idaho and will be spending a few days with her there. They are both consummate gardeners, this morning they were out in Joy’s garden filling a suitcase with starts and plants, and I bet they’ve already planted them in MOM’s garden in Idaho!

Joy, of course, will fill up the suitcase with stuff from Mom’s garden and take it back home to Minnesota to plant back in her own garden. I love that these two sisters share this love of the earth together!

Do you want to know how things ended!? Before we rushed out the door I threw together some sandwiches for us to eat on our journeys. My flight was leaving 45 minutes after theirs….and we’d be hungry on our flights. So…sandwiches and carrots it was. And I had a sneaky to stick in there too!

Remember the three “replacement” fortune cookies we asked for the day before? They were in my purse! And as we got to the gate for Mom & Joy’s flight, I pulled them out and said…Okay…it’s time for a re-do! Let’s see what these say now!

And we were QUITE surprised, and VERY pleased!

Mom’s: As one grows to understand life less and less, one learns to live it more and more!

Joy’s: The best angle from which to approach any problem is the TRYangle!

Mine: Success is a journey…not a destination.

I’d say that’s a triple win, wouldn’t you? But even then…..the three reject fortune cookie messages still make us laugh hysterically!! LOL!

And to end the day on a good note, there had to be just ONE more photo op at the gate:

Auntie Joy & Mom. Such great smiles!

Auntie Joy & Me! Oh, we had such a great time and I can’t wait to see them again!

Mom & Me ---either I’m getting taller, or she keeps getting shorter, and I’m not sure which one it is, but I tend to feel like the amazon queen around her :cD

Things still left to blog about….Uncle Steve and his bunny shed! Oh, and his garden too, it’s fabulous!

I inherited some goodies from Great Auntie Irene! She was my grand mother’s sister, and she was a quilter….

So those posts will be coming up as I can write them. We leave for Alaska on Sunday and I don’t know how the wifi will be up there, or if my wireless aircard will work, so I’ll try to load up the blog with some things to post intermittently just in case it is a couple days before we can get anywhere to post!