I think most kids grow up knowing what their parents are really good at – the things they have been doing since childhood. But not me. My parents grew up with nine month winters and I grew up with nine month summers. I remember being in elementary school when dad was getting re-certified to SCUBA dive, and mom trying years later. I remember when we bought our boat – learning how to tie proper knots and to care for equipment immersed in salt water. I remember mom being terrified of high seas and open water, but we went anyway.
The lives that we lived as family are incredibly different than my parents’ childhoods. Each country brought new things to be learned – cultures, lands, and hobbies. Wherever we were, we truly lived. I was raised to believe that I could do whatever I wanted to do. Not because I was invincible, but because I could learn and persevere.
This makes my parents sound like wild adventurers. Maybe to some that is exactly what they are, but I really think that they simply chose to live. They like quiet nights at home surrounded by family. They like routine and typically steer clear of things that could lead to ‘legendary stories’. And in choosing to live wherever they have been, I think they have given me an incredible blessing – I cannot fall into the trap of believing that I am too old to learn new things or that I should be excellent, nay perfect, at what I do, at my chosen hobbies. I know that I can try and that I will, most likely, succeed.
And so, while I dream, I am thankful that I have spent my life watching my parents do (not just try) new things, that I have seen them work at relationships and life, and I am thankful they have grown through all of it. Seeing them ski and skate taught me about their pasts, but my childhood taught me how to live. I know I can always learn something, someplace, someone new. Today I am thankful that my dreams do not have boundaries.
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I am an aunt. On Thursday, September 24, my little little brother Chris and his lovely wife Esther had their first child. Little little brother you ask? Well, yes. I have two younger brothers and he is the younger of the two, so he is little little brother. The fact that he is by far the tallest of the three siblings just makes me smile EVERY time I say it.
Since we found out Esther was pregnant 8 months ago, I have been saying, “The kids are having kids.” You see, Chris and Esther knew what they wanted and got married 2.75 years ago. Crazy. Insane. At 21 & 22 years of age they knew what they wanted and were willing to commit to it. COMMIT – a shocking word in this day and age. And so I have jokingly called them the kids ever since. For the past 8 months Esther’s belly has grown and somehow it kind-of-maybe seemed real that there was about to be another addition to the Crane family, but it was surreal.
On Thursday surreal became real when Liam Hussein arrived 2.5 weeks early at a healthy 6 lbs 13 oz. He is going to be the only tall skinny white kid with Irish and Arab names in any school he attends (middle name after the late King Hussein of Jordan). The labor was without drugs, feeding is breast milk, and the diapers cloth. Yep, the kids are having kids. I am so proud of them and maybe, just maybe, when I grow up I can be like them.
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The last five days were spent in Montana pulling up childhood memories. I spent two nights at a cabin my grandfather built in Essex, which is basically across the highway from Glacier National Park. He died of old age and strokes while I was in college, but the cabin remains. Grandpa has no time left, but the cabin remains not quite frozen in time. Walks in cool mountain air, huckleberries and raspberries on wild bushes, and the trains not far away crossing the Continental Divide.
Then two nights in Cut Bank, the small town where my mom grew up which appears as a cluster of homes and trees surrounded by endless wheat fields and dry prairie grass. At night here the constellations still grace the night sky; this state is not called Big Sky for nothing. Grandma still lives in the home my mom grew up in – the one where we made more s’mores in the backyard and pinned on superman capes that were really towels as kids. Grandma is old and wrinkly, but still grandma, and she is still holding onto life. My other Grandpa lives down the street from grandma and is starting to fall to Alzheimer’s. Stories are repeated more than normal and there is much amazement that clothes can come out of the dryer completely dry – if you know how to use it. Here time is regressing and moving forward all in one. Somehow it seems appropriate that in this town with insanely wide streets that few people reach the 25 mph speed limit.
Before long my 19 hours in Nashville will begin, and I am working on getting my brain up to speed as it seems to have been put in the cruise control mom now uses to not speed in Cut Bank. I am headed from no cell reception or email to a life dictated by my iphone. From slow time to fast forward – all just a plane ride away in this nation that we call the United States of America.
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Four friends from college days reunited.
Marriage is good.
So is falling in love.
“Come on Pam… I’ll help you make it over the barbed wire fence.” On this hike, I was the only person under 6 feet tall. And yes, with help, I did make it.
I told you there was laughter.
For mother and daughter, fantasy stories fill the hours.
“Aren’t you impressed with my packing?”
Getting ready to hike a beach on the Pacific Ocean to find a campsite.
Down there is where we camped listening to the ocean through the night. Just like camping when I was a kid – except a lot colder.
That mustache is the source of endless conversations. That look… well… what is family for but to document such things?!
My beautiful mom.
This was course one of dinner that night. Yes, we are all diving into the pot with spoons so as to avoiding doing dishes as much as possible.
Just to demonstrate that I do in fact believe in eating well while camping.
The brothers use creative measures when no ladder is available.
“L come over here and help out.” “What?” “You are so much lighter than M.” I love the expressions on their faces.
No, he is not an invalid. Yes, there was laughter.
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A few weeks ago I went to Atlanta to celebrate my birthday with my siblings. My brother’s lovely girlfriend, LL, took these pictures while we were wandering around the beautiful cemetery. Someday I will write on laughter; I think it is music for the soul. Until then, a few photos.
CC helps to design, build, and race ‘Baja’ cars every year. This year’s car is nearly ready and will be raced the beginning of June. 
The whole family.
With the parentals (yeah…CC’s height is not normal for our family). 
The biological kids. 
With the wife. 
Yeah…he’s done with school and off to vacation and then a job!Here I chilled with brother CC and sister-in-law EC. Highlights include the farmer’s market, great food (think salmon, crepes, fresh raspberries), spending a day replacing the speakers and stereo in George (aka ‘ my faithful car’), and riding on CC’s motorcycle.
For the record, in this picture I am in an empty parking lot in first gear…I am much more practiced at being a passenger!
Spent a couple days chilling with brother MC in Atlanta. In this picture he is finding out that he has lost a bet…good thing we just bet a beer.
Meet MC’s girlfriend LL. She has been the inspiration of MC’s starting to cook. MC wowed me with two outstanding breakfasts and three fantastic dinners. May they continue to cook to create many a good meal together!
I was born in Kenya while my parents where in the Peace Corps. While I only spent 7 months there out of the womb, I have always had a fascination, a connection of sorts, with the country and have wanted to return. 27 years after being one of two white babies in Nairobi Hospital, I returned. Five rip highlights:
1-Visiting the hospital where I was born. Though it has grown significantly, ‘my ward’ was still there, and mom and I snuck a quick photo while we walked down the hall.
2-A friend treated us to a wonderful day at a tea estate where we learned all about how tea is made, drunk our fair share of tea, ate some wonderful food, and enjoyed some magnificent gardens and tea fields.
3-We returned to Thika High School, the boys’ boarding school where my parents taught math. We visited our house, and walked all around the school.
4-One night was spent at Castle Forest Lodge, where Queen Elizabeth stayed at age 19. A beautiful location, Mount Kenya gave me a beautiful birthday present when she was fully visible in the morning.
5-We had birthday cake and coffee at the Norfolk Hotel. A waiter searched high and low for a way to keep a candle lit with the wind outside, and was, finally successful. So not only did I get a beautiful piece of cake, but a candle to blow out as well.
