LCGray: Ode to Wilmington

A few weeks ago we traveled to Delaware for some quality family time. My wish for my first mother's day was to share it along with my mother. It felt like such a sacred time and as we soaked in some much needed mother-daughter-grandaughter moments together. I just felt like I was part of something great as I recognized my role in continuing the traditions of my family. Yes, I get sentimental when I return to the place where I grew up. When I moved to Massachusetts I was always looking for something familiar. I still get excited when Charles and I go out to dinner and I know someone. I was spoiled to spend so much of my time in the area that I grew up. I love walking into our favorite Italian restaurant where the waitress (as crazy as she is) knows what the entire family is going to order. Quirks and all, she knows the Cirillo's and she has for generations and generations. I struggled with that so much when we first moved here. In many ways I have seen Massachusetts as a new beginning and I have loved learning and recreating who I am as a wife and now a mother. Having a child has helped me feel more at home. We pulled up to this house, our house, on the day we brought her home from the hospital and walked down the uneven brick path to the door where we were greeted by Scout. She let out her first giggle here, she crawled here, she welcomed the new babies in the neighborhood who she will grow up with and ride the bus with. God has given me such peace in this place. He knows our deepest longings to be known and to have intimacy with Him and also with those around us. Though that "settledness" has just begun, I can enjoy is and be grateful for the blessings He has given us here. In our home.

So going to Delaware makes me so appreciative of that place of being truly known. Ahh, how nice it is to not have to explain or introduce yourself all of the time. Although family in itself is its own challenge, I have such a healthier perspective because I'm not "in" it from day to day.

So my mom and I decided that we weren't going to have an itinerary. That lasted for about the first 10 minutes of our arrival. Here's how it panned out:

Thursday: dinner with some of mom's family and then we met with Kirstan's bridesmaids to OFFICIALLY kick off the planning process for her shower and wedding. My sister has some amazing friends that she has known her whole life (and of course, since I am the youngest, I always thought they were the greatest). They paved the way for me. Kirstan has this special quality that is somewhat selective about the people that she lets into her life. She loves everyone (well, not everyone...), but there are a handful of people in her life that can say that they know her and know how great and loving she is. I got the chance to be with them all in one room, which was so nice! Kirstan was quite jealous that she wasn't there. She'll have to wait until August...

On Friday my mom, Julia and I took a walk with some of my favoritest people in the world, Susan Goodenough and Kate Morgner and then went to Brew Ha Ha. If I had to pick the perfect day it would include all of these things wrapped together and this was just the morning. We then took Babci (Julia's great great grandmother) to the Wilmington Flower Market. I could write pages and pages of the significance of this place. Charles lived right next to Rockford Park and this is where he and I cultivated our relationship - we took walks here, brought Scout as a puppy, watched Charles play softball, took our engagement photos...

Oh how I love it.

Julia telling Zoey that it's ok, it's cool to hang at the flower market! Don't fight it Zoe :)

Dreaming of when she's going to get her horse.

Biting Babci. Poor Babci. She still bought her a funnel cake in the end.

Saturday was a complete shift from the entire "sentimental" weekend as we celebrated Kristen's birthday on a wine tasting brigade. I use the word brigade because our limo of 12 girls was a force to be reckoned with as we toured 3 vineyards!

Isn't it great to go crazy with the girls you grew up with? Sometimes when I'm with them I transport myself back to the time when we ate Doritos and stayed up late watching "Adventures in Babysitting". Yes, we have graduated from Juicy Juice to wine, but some things never change.

This is the KJ that I know...especially this past month!

And then we celebrated Mother's Day.
My first official Mother's Day (this time last year I was celebrating my baby shower on this day). How many times this year have I said "This time last year"? I am in such a constant state of reflecting because life has changed so much. Life before Julia seems like forever ago!
Much of our day was spent driving home, but my favorite part of the day was my gift from Charles. He spent a lot of time creating a quiz that I had to complete to win a prize. The quiz consisted of 20 questions surrounding the events of the past year - everything from Julia's stats at birth (we always have conflicting stats...he rounds up, I tell it just as it is) to her first word. It was pretty neat to sit down as a family and talk about each of her firsts. He did good - sometimes I don't give him enough credit for his ability to pull through at these important times :)
Needless to say, I won the top prize - a new lens for our camera.