I currently live in Boise, Id. I moved back to the western states with my wife and youngest child, who is currently 14 about ten years ago, from Oklahoma where my three adult children from a previous marriage live. There were many reasons for moving, including the fact that my parents are/were aging, and they intended to move back to my home town of Salt Lake. Boise was a good compromise, Close enough to Salt Lake that I can go visit, My in-laws live here, so they get to watch their grandson grow up and there is public land to hike, ski and hunt on locally. It doesn't hurt that I can buy an over the counter tag for damn near any big game species.
My parents lived in Alaska when my older children were young, and as a result, my children hardly knew their grandparents, My father never has hunted with my children, and I think that's a crying shame. The lack of visits were not due to any estrangement, mostly due to the constraints of time, money and geography. My Mother passed away last year, and my father is in frail health currently, I go to visit as often as I can, and I'm grateful that I live in a place where that option is available to me.
Now to the point of the post, My older children are getting older, and married, and my son and his wife are expecting a baby girl this spring (Naming her after my mother, to my great joy). All three children have careers near their mom, and local family on both sides of their marriages, so I don't think they're likely to move. I don't want to miss out on all the things my parents did, and not knowing my grandkids, and watching them grow up is already weighing heavily on my mind. My wife is a teacher, and I work in environmental management, (I clean up spills and haul hazardous waste) so career wise, we could go anywhere and be able to transfer job skills. I could be a long distance grandparent, making sure to bring kids to the "mountains" on an annual basis, IE spend a couple of weeks every summer at the Grandpa's house, and making a visit to Oklahoma every year. It does seem like I'd miss out on a lot of stuff though. Baseball and soccer games, birthdays, weekend camping trips etc. And mostly, I wouldn't know the kids.
What the heck, I'm just looking for any experiences anyone else has. Anybody have any advice?
My parents lived in Alaska when my older children were young, and as a result, my children hardly knew their grandparents, My father never has hunted with my children, and I think that's a crying shame. The lack of visits were not due to any estrangement, mostly due to the constraints of time, money and geography. My Mother passed away last year, and my father is in frail health currently, I go to visit as often as I can, and I'm grateful that I live in a place where that option is available to me.
Now to the point of the post, My older children are getting older, and married, and my son and his wife are expecting a baby girl this spring (Naming her after my mother, to my great joy). All three children have careers near their mom, and local family on both sides of their marriages, so I don't think they're likely to move. I don't want to miss out on all the things my parents did, and not knowing my grandkids, and watching them grow up is already weighing heavily on my mind. My wife is a teacher, and I work in environmental management, (I clean up spills and haul hazardous waste) so career wise, we could go anywhere and be able to transfer job skills. I could be a long distance grandparent, making sure to bring kids to the "mountains" on an annual basis, IE spend a couple of weeks every summer at the Grandpa's house, and making a visit to Oklahoma every year. It does seem like I'd miss out on a lot of stuff though. Baseball and soccer games, birthdays, weekend camping trips etc. And mostly, I wouldn't know the kids.
What the heck, I'm just looking for any experiences anyone else has. Anybody have any advice?