So Many Somedays

Before I begin, I spoke with my wife, Kristen, who said she doesn't mind that I use the kids name on the blog. They are (in age order): Christopher (17), Riannah (10), Nolan (8), Harper (5), Willow (2), and Isla (2 weeks) [you say it like this: eye-la].

Kristen and I love to dream about some day. We love to think about what we can do next year or the year after that, or even many years down the line. For instance, "someday we'll get a bigger house with our own yard" (we live in a townhouse). Or "someday we'll get a bigger van so that everyone has more room". There's always something we look forward to, and someday we'll be able to make those visions come true.

We don't always just dream about someday; we sometimes get to make those visions true. Last year we took a family trip to Anna Maria Island in Florida. It was a fun 3-day drive each way, we got to spend a couple days at Kristen's parents house, and Kristen even got to meet a good friend of hers face-to-face in St. Louis. That was one of our somedays.

Before we left for that Florida trip, we traded in our Ford Freestyle for a Chrysler Town & Country with the stow-and-go seating. That was one of our somedays (to move to a vehicle with more room).

We like to live our lives thinking about someday. It helps motivate us to do some of the things we do and always focuses us on some type of goal. Today, we had a family get-together to celebrate my father and stepmother's 25th Anniversary. As an awesome anniversary treat, they were able to hold our 2-week old Isla and my sister's 2 1/2 month old William (although he was born prematurely and thus isn't much bigger than Isla). I snapped a picture of the two babies being held by their grandparents and it was such a cute moment. But, it got me thinking, and Kristen and I think about this often, someday we'll be grandparents, but how many grandchildren will we have?

If our children are like us, we'll have 36 grandchildren. YIKES! If they're not, maybe we'll have 12. Regardless, we'll have an anniversary and at that anniversary, we'll get to take pictures with our cute little grandchildren on our laps or snuggled into our chests (depending on their age, of course). Kristen and I have been married coming up on 7 years so we'll be celebrating our 25th Anniversary when Isla is 18 and Christopher is 35. Thus, it's quite conceivable that we too could have a pair of newborn grandchildren to snuggle with and have cute pictures taken of.

Now, it's weird to think about having grandchildren someday when you're only 36 and you have a 2-week old nuzzled under your chin. But that's what Kristen and I do, and I can't wait for all the wonderful get-togethers we're going to have with our children and grandchildren. I can't wait to smother them with hugs, kisses, and pixie sticks! I can't wait to get the Grandparents Plus Grandchildren pass to the Minnesota Zoo and bring all of them around like a herd of monkeys running around and screaming after lunching on pretzels, cookies, and Mt. Dew. I can't wait to turn them into crazy, screaming children who seriously need a nap and hand them over to their parents with a smile of revenge on our faces!

But, most of all, I can't wait until that someday leads to visions of another someday. Because life is an interesting roller coaster that Kristen and I have ridden many times.