Slow down, you move to fast

August 7, 2010 –

As I mentioned earlier, this stop on the trip was an opportunity for the kids to get in touch with their roots, but I was really the one who learned a lot more about a part of my family that I knew very little about.

In the morning, Becky and I got a tour of the small, rural farming communities on our way to tiny grocery store with Connie, and the kids had a ball playing PS3 with Robbie and Ammon. Oh, I also helped Connie feed the chickens this morning.

Then this afternoon, we went to my first cousin once removed (I think) Nancy’s house for a “family” dinner. I was related to almost everyone at the dinner by blood or marriage, but as this was the first time I had met all of these people, it took a little while to figure out the exact connections. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my Grandfather Harold wasn’t much of a father to either my mom’s or Connie’s families growing up. In fact, my mom used her stepfather’s last name for most of her life before she got married, and she always meant her step-dad when she referred to her dad.

After she had attended her dad’s funeral, my Aunt Connie actually became better acquainted with some of her real dad’s family (my mom did too, but to a lesser extent because of her health issues). Connie eventually ended moving to the Pocatello area where a couple of her dad’s nieces had settled and had extended family in the area. Once Connie knew we were coming for a visit, she and Nancy organized a family get-together for whoever could make it. It was kind of fun meeting relatives that I never knew I had.

Nancy has done a great job of keeping track of family history so she had a lot of family pictures to share. She was able to tell me stories about my grandpa and his family. She even gave me a postcard that my grandmother had written while she was still married to my grandfather. It was more fun and interesting than I had expected.

The kids also had a good time because Nancy’s husband Larry collects and restores all kinds of antiques, and he seemed to love showing them to all of us. He has old wagons, buggies, cars, tractors, etc. Plus their house has a beautiful view of the valley. My mother-in-law Kit would have been in heaven talking genealogy and seeing so many cool antiques in a unique setting. It was very mellow day.