Ohio 2009

It's become a little family tradition that every year, during the first weekend in August, we trek up to Ohio to visit family. My extended family doesn't seem to extend very far, but what we do have is nestled in and around Columbus. We hang out with Grandpa, go to the Irish Festival, and participate in a Family Golf Tournament. We have it down to a little routine. A little routine of fun.

Since there is usually flying involved, we have to count our pennies and decide who is going each year. Most of the time it's just me, with a few exceptions. I took Grady when he was four months old-I wanted him to meet my Grandparents. A few years ago, the four of us drove up there, and made it a traveling Scroggins vacation. This year, I enlisted Tanner as my travel buddy. He didn't have as many memories of my Grandparents or Ohio in general, plus it was really his turn since Madison did all that skiing over spring break.

He was pumped.

I think he was mostly excited to ride on an airplane, but secondly, he was excited to be the ONLY kid around. No fighting for attention or goodies. Everything was all about Tanner. It was nice to be on this 5-day date with him, too. Those one-on-one times are hard to come by, but enormously wonderful and special when they do.

So, we arrived in Ohio and headed to Uncle Carl's house. Tanner thought Uncle Carl was pretty much the coolest adult. Ever. He had a game cube, complete with Sonic the Hedgehog-a new game to Tanner, but one he quickly mastered, and one he used to beat the crap out of Uncle Carl. Good Times. I mean, look at him:

Friday, before heading to the airport Mom and Patti (because the Miller clan can NEVER go anywhere together), we drove by Ohio State. Dad wanted to impress Tanner with its awesomeness, but Tanner was true to Aggieland, and said it was just "ok." From that moment, the rest of those Ohio People were putting on the Ohio State Sale, just crushed that Tanner was not in a state of awe. Gig 'Em.

After acquiring the rest of our family, it was on to the Irish Festival. I've mentioned this before, but my Grandmother was Irish-born in Ireland Irish, so when we hang out with those Ohio peeps, it's all about being Irish. The Irish Festival is part of that. We watch Irish stepdancing, drink Irish beer, and just in general sit around being Irish. It's superfun.

There's also your basic non-Irish things like funnel cakes, ice cream on a stick and cotton candy. All of which I think Grandad or Uncle Carl bought for Tanner. Result seen above. In addition to sugar in any form, there were weapons purchased for Tanner, weapons he's been in love with since that moment. (There's more to the weapon story-and I will elaborate on a later post.) Tanner met some cousins, played with his weapons, and slept in hotel rooms. It was his own personal form of paradise.

Sunday, we headed to the golf tournament, where he met MORE cousins, and had a BLAST. I didn't see him the entire time we were there, and when we left, he announced that those kids were his best friends (nevermind that he couldn't remember their names.) As the kids played, the adults laughed at "old times" as they always do. It's a weird walk talking with your parents about their childhood one minute, and then sharing a beer with them as a peer the next. It's a fun walk, but a weird one nonetheless. All too soon, it was time to leave. It always happens that just when we get in the groove, just when we relax and settle into the scene, we have to pack up. It's been like that forever. That's the trouble when your family lives states and states away. But, like always, we hugged and kissed our goodbyes with promises of seeing eachother BEFORE another year passed. We made tentative plans for future fun birthday parties and college football games. We promised to stay in touch.

And then we drove away. We settled into the airport hotel for one last night in Ohio, already reminiscing about the weekend with family. I sometimes wish travel was free for family to family-like cell phone minutes? Then we'd have a constant beaten path between our two homes. But, it doesn't work that way, and so we'll move on to start the school year with these fun memories fresh in our minds, and new email addresses fresh in our pockets.