We are under a "blizzard watch" up here in the Northeast. Of course, the "apparent" blizzard is expected to occur on the very weekend I am the counselor on site so it should be an interesting weekend. There are eight counselors and we take turns covering all the patients on a rotating schedule to cover the weekends. I hear we are also suppose to have a "full moon". Call me superstitious. It is the Irish in me.

On a personal note, Bill & I will be flying down to Florida for a long weekend next week to check in on his father. My brother and sister-in-law are currently down at their home in Florida so we will stay with them. I hope the weather is fairly decent down there. I am in the mood for a little Florida sunshine.

We will be spending Easter in Canada this year with the grandsons. We are flying out the Tuesday prior to Easter into Toronto renting a car and going on a road trip. First stop is the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Second Stop is Niagara Falls. They are the only two plans set in stone. Everything else is a wait and see adventure. I love to travel with my grandchildren and view the adventures through their young eyes. I also believe in making memories with them as my own grandparents made memories with me. One of my best memories of my grandparents is spending the summer of 1976 in California with them and traveling through the state up into Nevada. I have so many fond memories of my grandparents from learning to fish and play pool from my grandfather to listening to his story telling and folklore to my grandmother baking in the kitchen and cuddling up with her to read a book or watch a show on the black & white television set. I had my grandfather until I was 20 years old and my grandmother until I was 30 years old. I never knew my paternal grandparents as they died before I was born. In this day and age when families live distances away and children grow up without the loving connection to their grandparents when in fact I believe a child grows up with addition feelings of safety & security and love when grandparents are nearby because they add a different element of growth to a child. Grandparents get to have all the fun with their grandchildren without the responsibilities of parenting.

We always celebrate Nikolas's birthday with a weekend at the Woodlands in the mountains. We celebrate Shaun's birthday at the shore house. We like to take adventurous vacations around Easter or Spring Break. We celebrate all the important life events and this past year we spent a lot of time at the movie theaters whether it is seeing Star Wars at the  Tuttleman IMAX Theater at the Franklin Institute or seeing Jurassic World in 3D at Plymouth where they have reclining assigned seats.

Here we are this past weekend at the Tuttleman then having dinner at the Hard Rock Café in the city.

Prior to taking the boys to the movies and dinner, we had some morning cuddle time with our granddaughter Aubree.

And Ava who we do not get to spend time with is never far from our thoughts. Maybe one day, we will have the opportunity to reconnect and spend time together as we did all those years in the beginning.

Ava is tucked deep within my heart.