Wanna Go Home

(April 25, 2009)

Yesterday I woke up with this extreme feeling of homesickness for West Yellowstone. We haven't been in a long time and I miss it. If we do nothing else this summer, I want to take a weekend trip there with the whole family, Chant included. When we went as a family the last time (in the summer) Ainsley was just little, like 1. Chant and I had fun visiting the places that we meaningful to us, but I am really excited to take the kids now. The girls are old enough now that I can take them to the places where I worked and lived and played. I can take the kids to see my Grandma's house, where I spent so much time when I was younger and two full summers when I was 16 and 17. Even though it's not the same since Grandma is no longer there, they will be able to see it and the woods not very far away where I played and built forts with cousins. I will be able to take them on a tour of all the places I worked during the summers and share with them memories of Grandma teaching me how to carry 4 plates of food in one arm and folding clothes to the tunes of Dean Martin while singing at the top of my lungs and laughing with Stacy, memories of stocking beloved books on the shelves of the bookstore. I will be able to take them to my favorite spots around town: the bridge where it was tradition to eat Chinese food underneath while it rained, the city park where I spent so many evenings, Black Sands and Madison Arm Resort where Chant and I fell in love and knew we would be married. We will go to the Christmas Store and each of us will buy a new ornament for the tree, a special tradition that we haven't been able to keep up while in Missouri. We will get an ice cream at Dairy Queen, where Chant worked. We will visit the Penny to a Dollar store. And of course somewhere in there we might even visit Yellowstone National Park.