Our daughter lives in California with her husband and their three sons - 13, 11, and 8 years old. Jim and I live across the country from them. We have bent a lot of plastic on plane rides, hotels and telephone calls over this past 13 years. You just have to when you are long distance grandparents and live 3000 miles away.

About a year ago we were out for a visit. One afternoon when we were riding around town with Scotty, the youngest of the three boys, he opened up a conversation from the back seat. Scotty is talkative and often surprising in what he choses to talk about.

"Weezie, you know something."

"What?"

" If you lived here, I could visit you every day."

Jim and I looked at each other. How we would love that. At that moment Scotty planted a seed.
And, he planted that seed in very fertile ground. There was nothing we would like more than time -
precious time - with these boys.

It has taken almost a year for the plant to mature and bloom.

Now its our own Special Spring. All the pieces in place. We have rented a three room cottage within 10 minutes of Robin, close enough for the two oldest boys to bike over. Schedules rearranged, plane tickets in hand, even one for the dog,
packing about done, car ordered from Priceline.com - we are just about ready to leave.

For the month of May we will be on site grandparents.

We are looking forward to it -
and hoping that Scotty hasn't fotgotten that he wanted to come and see us everyday.