I feel both envious of and happy for people whose grandchildren live close enough by that they can be a regular part of their children's children's everyday lives.
As for Tom and me, our only two grandchildren, aged 6 and 4, live 2,200 miles away and we see them three or four times a year when we visit them or they visit us.
The up side of this arrangement, though - as I remind myself and other people I know whose loved ones live far away - is that it not only gives us a destination to travel to now and then, but that it makes those times when we can be together special events, joyful occasions that will, hopefully, settle in among our and our loved ones' happy memories.
And, an added benefit, we long-distance grandparents spend so little time with our grand children that when we do see them we can spoil them to our hearts' content without fear of spoiling them beyond all rehabilitation.
Still, a couple of weeks ago when our daughter and grand daughters returned with us to Columbus from our Chicago family reunion, Tom and I gave it our best shot.
We arrived home from Chicago on the evening of Monday, July 19,
We started off the morning at Tom's an my favorite local breakfast eatery, the Café Creekside ,
The library being about a half-mile from the restaurant, I told them yes, we could walk if they wanted to.
Fortunately we were just around the corner from a Panera,