My Birthday Trip With My Children

My husband and I didn't have any children together. His children and grandchildren have become mine over time. And my children and grandchildren over time have become his.

My husband has four children and I have two children from my first marriage and one son from a second marriage. His children were grown young adults when we were married, as were my children.

Today we have children that are 51, 50, 48, 48, 45, 44, and 38. How is that possible? Yes, we are old.

When I turned sixty, my three children had a birthday party for me at the community center where I live. It was great. They cooked and are all three great cooks. They arranged the games for kids and all I had to do was contact a comedian and put a Life and Times video together.

One of the children at my party thanked me and said it was the best birthday party he had ever been to. He was probably five years old. Big compliment though. Exactly what we were going for!

The weather was bad for that party, and not all our other children could make it.

For my recent birthday, the three of them asked if we could go somewhere for my birthday as I wasn't interested in a birthday party this time. I have been feeling old and didn't want to celebrate turning seventy with a big crowd! I think they may have thought to recreate my 60th.

We all agreed to go and then it took some time to decide where. My oldest son is not my biological son and he has a mother living in North Carolina, so after our visit, he planned to visit her for a couple of days.

I thought it was a perfect idea, even though, the temperature wasn't much different there than here in Minnesota. They broke a cold record while we were there. It was humorous to us as the roads were closed all over, due to snow and ice. None of the roads we drove on had snow and ice!

We saw very little snow. Our time together was relaxed and a nice break from the normal business of life. Even though I am retired I continue to work and when I am not working I am spending time with family and friends and I try to write every day.

We spent all of our meals together and that was great as growing up, meals together were few and far between. They all worked at food places and ate there or were in school or working at meal times.

The first thing on the agenda each day when we were together was the oldest went to caribou and brought back our favorite beverage from there. This was great as the hotel coffee was awful.

Each morning we proceeded to breakfast. Except for Cracker Barrel, everything was new and unique. We went to Cracker Barrel as the youngest has never been to one. We made an effort to skip other chain restaurants.

We had a delicious fried green tomato dish one morning as an appetizer before our breakfast arrived. The dish was a specialty there and well worth ordering. There were tasty grits under the tomato.

Spending time together was great! We went to an art museum, and art shops in an artist part of town and we attended a movie together. Our goal was to only go to highly-rated food places and we ate two meals a day and a snack, most days.

The movie was over the top and I had trouble with the violence. The boys seemed to enjoy it with some comments about the over the top making parts funny. It was called The Beekeeper. I had seen some of The Transporter so recognized the degree to his handling himself in film.

As a parent, I was so pleased to know that my children are doing well. I am confident that they can take care of themselves and their families. Because it was my birthday, they decided to split the costs three ways, rather than four.

I was surprised that none of our partners were interested in going with us. Could that mean they were looking forward to a break from us? I am not going there as we all have loving spouses/fiance.

Three of us have been together with spouses for 19+ years. The youngest with his fiance for almost 5 years now. They were engaged last year. My husband hates to leave our house in the winter. Pipes may freeze and we have a snowmobile.

We decided we would do this trip again. Although, it doesn't have to mean flying anywhere. Considering flying south this year the weather was so similar. Maybe we can do something for a February, July, or September birthday next time?

Naw, I celebrate my birthday all month long, so it only makes sense that we do this again next January! And what a nice thing to look forward to every year! Spending time with three of my favorite people in the world!