Gramps and Grandma time

Erin and I spent last weekend on a whirlwind trip to Missouri visiting family. We spent all of Saturday with Erin's family for our niece's 2nd birthday. It was exciting as always! We spent alot of time playing with Bella and hanging out with Erin's sister's and her mom. Whether we're eating, watching sports, giving each other a hard time, or playing cards (I almost won our "Apples to Apples" game)...I love hanging out with my in-laws. But on Sunday we made a couple quick stops on the way back to Bourbonnais to see my grandparents and my parents. I hadn't seen Gramps and Grandma for awhile because Erin and I didn't make it back in time for Christmas Eve at their house. I'm always amazed at them...even at their age and their health issues, they're always ready for company. My Beerman cousins and I are very lucky to have grandparents who have been alert, healthy, and able enough to see us all grow up to be adults. I've noticed that's kind of an oddity. Erin and I sat and talked with them for about 45 minutes but I could've stayed all day and listened to their stories. Gramps was talking about Uncle Donald (Grandma's sisters' husband) and how many stamps he's collected over the years, "I don't know why he needs them, they just sit 12 security boxes in the bank." And Grandma was talking about how everytime they got a new vehicle it always seemed like Gramps got a new truck and she never got a new car. I love listening to them! We talked about how Gramps used to smoke a pipe and why he quit...Grandma thinks he just got bored and quit cold turkey one day, Gramps thinks it's because Grandma made him! We also talked about how whenever Grandma would make chocolate milk shakes for us, it would scramble the tv whenever she turned the blender on (which Gramps swears was only during a Chicago Cubs game). Unfortunatley we had to hit the road so we couldn't stay longer but I can't wait to get back there and have some more conversations and for Gramps to say "Jared, sit down and tell me a story."