Thursday, May 28, 2009

Grandpa Wolf

After a short battle with lung cancer, my grandpa (my mom's dad) passed away a month ago this week. He was not only an incredible man & grandpa, but my last grandparent. We lived in the same town growing up and for quite a while, just around the block. In my small town, we could walk to my grandparents' house and did that often. I wanted to blog about him at the time, but feared I wouldn't portray him as I'd like. I still don't have all the words, but here are some great things about my grandpa.

He gave me a nickname that (sometimes unfortunately) has stuck. Most of my family & many family friends still refer to me as..."Bootie". My grandpa used to sing, "Bootie go to night, night" and the nickname stuck. You can see why I say unfortunately, although I do love being the grandchild singled out. :)

He loved to travel and some of my greatest childhood memories involve vacations with my grandparents. We always traveled to Florida, via my grandparents' van, playing games on the long drives. My first encounter with the ocean was with him, as well as my first trip to Disney World and several other amusement parks. When I get a copy, I'll post a poem he wrote about his many travels.

He was an giver, encourager and "filler". My aunt read a children's book at his funeral about filling people's buckets. My grandpa did that in all aspects of his life. He loved his family & friends unconditionally and lifted people up just with his presence.

He was a joke-teller. Every time we saw him, he'd have a new joke. He loved to make people laugh!

He was always genuinely excited to hear from me or see me when we visited. After I had children, he always wanted to see them, wanted to know how they were, wanted to see us more.

He was an incredible Christian man and I am thankful I had him as an example in my life. He lived an incredibly full life, to a grand 87 years old. Though I'm still sad that he's gone (and even caught myself about to ask my Dad just last night on the phone how Grandpa was doing), I know he is with His Savior now as well as being reconciled with my grandma, mom and many other relatives & friends.





Playing Catch Up

Well, I have obviously not blogged in some time. I've been very lazy about it. So, I'm gonna do a quick catch-up. Here are some highlights...

Rory had her 2nd birthday, with minimal fanfare. The four of us celebrated at home with dinner, cupcakes & presents.





Cami got to use her golf clubs at the driving range with Devon for the first time. A future Annika Sorenstam?




The four of us took a week-long vacation to Southern California. We spent four nights in San Diego at an awesome little hotel on a marina. Seriously, on the marina. If we had jumped off our balcony, we would have been in the water. We went to Sea World, the zoo, and the beach as well as toured other parts of San Diego, ate some great food, including some places highlighted on Guy Fieri's, "Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives". The next three nights were spent in San Clemente, a gorgeous beach town about an hour north of San Diego. My best friend & roommate from college lives there along with her husband & 3-month old baby boy. We had such a great time visitnig with them, eating good food (again) and just relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous (although a little cool at times) weather and scenery.