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The One Where Marilyn Leaves & Lindsay Gets Emotional

As the title for this post so subtly suggests, today was the day when Marilyn left for Philadelphia - she'll be spending the next two weeks in Pennsylvania and Delaware visiting her siblings and attending her nursing school's fifty year reunion. Pretty awesome stuff, if you ask me.

We got up early to get ready to bring her to the airport. Really early. Like two hours earlier than necessary due to some sort of malfunction with Lindsay's brain that prevented her from realizing that her cell phone was still set to Manitoba time. I wish I could tell you that I realized this immediately and went back to bed. But I didn't. I woke up Geoff, who woke up Briony and got her dressed and fed while I was in the shower. I didn't realize my mistake until after said shower (and makeup and hair styling) - and there's really no turning back at that point. You can't really explain to a five month old that mommy made a mistake and that it's time to go back to bed. And so Briony and I played and Geoff went back to bed to catch another hour of sleep. Argh.

We got Marilyn to the airport with time to spare, then headed in the direction of Granville Island on a little mission for my brother Aaron and my soon to be sister-in-law Caitlin. Cait has been accepted to study at Emily Carr (which is located in Granville Island) beginning this September, so they're going to be official residents of Vancouver in just a few short months. Amusingly, neither of them has actually been to Vancouver, and Geoff and I were having a difficult time explaining the sights and sounds of Granville to them - so we spent the morning walking around and taking some pictures for them (and chatting up some Emily Carr employees to find out about nearby housing opportunities).

It was a gorgeous place to grab a morning cup of coffee and read the paper, and we did both inside a solarium attached to the main market and overlooking the harbour. After our self-guided little walking tour, we did some shopping at the market and took our little picnic lunch over to Stanley Park. Cheesy, yes. Fabulous, YES. We completed 'Aaron & Cait Day' by stopping in at Ikea to do some presearch (yup, I made it up) for our big upcoming bridal shower shopping spree.

Ah, yes. I promised you earlier that I would get emotional. Truth be told, I was weepy on and off all morning. Granville Island was just as cool as I'd remembered and the school was so quirky and Stanley Park is obviously beautiful, and as we were walking around, I realized more than ever how much Aaron & Cait are going to love it here. I could see them sitting at the next table over from us in the solarium, taking in the view, and giggling excitedly as it begins to sink in that THEY LIVE HERE. They're going to love it here. And I'm pretty sure that - once they've spent four years here - they're never going to move back home. And as happy as I am for them, today marked the first day that I was in mourning a little bit for me. I know that we'll see them probably more than anyone else, but I'm going to miss having them close by.

We were back in Abbotsford in time for me to make dinner for our little family plus Alan. By this time, Geoff was feeling lousy again and Briony was developing a scary chunky-sounding cough. As for me, I was as sick as everyone else - but very aware that moms don't really get to be sick, so I took care of everyone else and then collapsed into bed early, praying for a very deep sleep. Or death. SUPER AWESOME.

Labels: Aaron, Briony, Caitlin, Family, The Boy, Travel

posted by Lindsay @ 8:48 PM