farewell aptos, ca

Some may know this, others may not, but my dear Meema (grandma) is from the beautiful (busy) state of California. Aptos, California to be exact. My family and I made annual trips to visit her because she lived in this trailer that was inside an awesome old people neighborhood and we were literally five minutes from the beach. I don't remember one time kicking and screaming because we HAD to go to grandmas house. I only remember counting down the minutes til we got to visit her. My Meema always made our visits worthwhile, she would call each of her grandkids up and ask what our favorite cereal, cookies, and ice cream was before we made our trip to see her. Who wouldn't love that? I adore my grandma more than anything because she has always thought of everyone (literally everyone, not just her kin) before she thinks of herself. Selfless lady. Sometimes she's a little too selfless. Can you be too selfless? Eh, I don't know the answer.


This is us taking a break from driving down to California-->

                                                          

Anyway!

(Summer before I got married. Jeremy, Meema, and me in her darling Mercedes)

(Boardwalk)

(About to get on the Giant Dipper)

(The Warf)

(Santa Cruz Beach)

(You can kind of see my grandma'a garden, it is bee-you-tee-ful!)

Will and I made our last trip to Aptos, California this last summer with my grandma living there because it was time for her to move to an assisted living facility, because she wasn't able to take care of herself no mo! What a sad trip! I mean, it was enjoyable because we were with my grandma, mom, sister (Lindsay), brother (Chris), and sister-in-law (Becky), but definitely hard to say our goodbyes. We made sure we would make a traditional, special trip to Eriks (the best sandwich place in the world), the Boardwalk (Giant Dipper), the Warf, O'neill shop, and the Santa Cruz light house. We tried to enjoy every minute. Except when we'd take our anger out on each other not realizing that it was because we were so sad to leave this beautiful place. A place we had visited since we were munchkins. Will and I still want to make traditional annual trips in memory of my Meema, but it just won't be the same without her there. She made up 98% of the trip. SO, maybe we shouldn't go if the level of fun is 2%. I'm just glad we were able to be there when my Meema handed the keys over to the new owner of her adorable trailer. Oh, how I'll miss my grandma teaching me ALL about her flowers she grew in her garden, my, she had the most beautiful, large garden of flowers. I'm going to miss watching movies with her while we ate our orange sorbet, the smell of the beach that was barely two miles away, and just the wonderful feeling of being there with my grandma in her home.

Wow, excuse my chapter book, but this definitely hits close to home. Both Will and I love making this trip, it definitely won't be the last for us.