.:: 20 months later ::.

*Our family starts a new tradition and celebrates an old one.*

Auntie Tammy had the great idea to have everyone write a letter to gma and send it up to her. The year went by faster than I thought it would.

At 3:30 pm, Jessica was supposed to pick me up from work. Well that turned into 4:00 pm, which finally turned into 4:30 pm...everyone is used to Jessica time so it wasn't that big of a deal.

I wrote my letter at work, while waiting for Jess. It was a couple pages long. Jess had typed hers at work, also a couple pages long. When we got to the cemetary... Auntie Tammy, Alexis, Katie, Megan, Harley, and Gpa wrote their letters to gma. We all tied our letters to our balloons.

Jess thought that because her letter was kind of heavey, she should tie her balloon to two other balloons. I thought I would just let mine carry away in the wind by itself. (:

Notice in this picture, there are 8 balloons, just like there are 8 of us letting said balloons go. Also, notice the nice purple balloon.

Notice in this picture the purple balloon that is not there, and the 7 other balloons nicely floating on up together.

Yeah I should have hopped on the "group balloon" bandwagon

My balloon had a hard time finding a good air pocket to carry it up and away with the rest of the balloons, but that's okay. It just floated up in a different path.  Behind some nice trees and telephone poles.
I would like to take this time to explain a little about how balloons relate to my life.
balloons = the people in my family
<i>I didn't necessarily follow the "balloons" in my life to a tee. I made different decisions and learned different life lessons. Throughout all of it though, my gma didn't look at me any differently than she looks at the other balloons. Even though we went our separate ways when it came to making decisions and living life differently, she was always there 100% for every balloon, no matter where we were.</i>

I know that wherever my balloon ended up, my gma is right by it. She's reading my letter and reaching out to love me even more than ever.

Later in the evening, we all went to Harley's restaurant of choice--Chuck A Rama--for his birthday to eat. (:

After we ate, he got sung to and got some birthday ice cream.
He said the wish he made here was to never be sung to again.

(He probably lied, he loved it.  His big smile proved that.)

Happy Birthday Harley!! The big ONE FOUR!