We said our farewells to Gran, Zoe and Finn's Great Grandma, Georgette Zubeck, who died on April 2nd, 2013 of congestive heart failure, at the age of 91. Gran had spent one month with us a while back, when the kids were quite young. And both loved and respected her in their own way.. even if one of my memories of Zoe's interaction with Gran includes Zoe sticking her tongue out at Gran and Gran getting quite upset about it.
We flew in and were picked up by Bruce on the 4th, going straight to the viewing.. the kids first. Zoe was quite nervous about it, but did just fine. Finn seemed quite unaware of it, but now that we are back and he has spent one day at school and then with Andrea, it is clear it had more of an effect on him than I knew. Finn played a lot of "being dead" today.. and at some point was quite sullen.. Andrea finally got him to say, "I missed my grandma who died"... although I am some what torn as to whether he was really missing her, or if this is an expression he has tied to what it means to feel sad.. an easy way of someone understanding that he is sad. When I came to get Finn after school today, he was out in the middle of the field.. I scooped him up and he started really crying.. saying how much he missed me. We had spent 10 days away from home.. surrounded by family.. together all day. It was a hard day back.
During the trip the kids played a bit with their cousins Barton and Brooke, now almost 13 and almost 11. It is amazing how grown up the kids are... Barton put up with a large amount of tumbling with the kids.. which really translates to Finneas pummeling him.. I have some videos to put up. Brooke played a lot of Minecraft.. trying to show Zoe and Finn how to play. Zoe spent a lot of time drawing and watching Brooke. Occasionally they would play with Brooke's teddy bears. I guess I wasn't aware of how old Brooke was.. she didn't have any barbies or toys.
The kids also got to spend some time with Rachelle.. Finneas called her "the girl with red hair".. but they both now understand that they have a sister. Rachelle watched the kids the day after the funeral when we moved my Grandma (Margaret Ashurst) from her house into an assisted living center. The kids played for a long time in her basement, without a word from them. I remember playing there myself. Then she watched them while we moved the furniture into the center. The kids had a grand time rolling down a steep grass hill. I think they will have fond memories of that tough day. Today Finneas told me he missed Rachelle. I think the kids now understand more than ever what it means to not have family around and they miss it. We will not be able to miss any more Christmases..
After we managed all of Gran's estate, we had a few days with Nana and Grandpa and their new puppy Koda, who they call LaKoda or DaKoda. Zoe had such a fun time with the puppy.. despite his very sharp teeth and tendency to scratch. Finneas and dogs are another story though. At Jeff and Heather's there was a night with Auntie Amy's dachshunds, dogs with a very sharp, yippee bark.. I just remember that was the first of many times where I saw Finn jump into a chair and start crying his eyes out. After that night with the dogs, I became very wary of Koda and Finn, in fact most of the time there was a door between him and the dog. I think he is just too short to set the dogs in their place.
Finn and Zoe also had a grand time with their 2 year old cousin Quinn. Quinn calls them "my Zoe"... and would often ask where they were when Carrie and I were on the phone making plans to meet up.
We had a great trip.. I have more thoughts running through my head and a few pictures that I'll put up in the next few posts.
