Awsome trip to see Daughters Master Degree Graduation, then flew from there to see SS30 & his gal and 2 SGKIDS.  The lady on the plane was comming back from a two week trip with her boyfriend to see her elderly Dad.  Her dad and SM have been married 40 years.  She said to me "GOSH- its so great to be able to have a relationship with my dad, now that my mom has died, I can talk to him on the phone and go visit him and not have to worry about my mom being mad and jelous." "Its just so nice and I love my relationship with him,  hes such a great guy! and he is so cute with my SM, he follows her around the house cause hes so in love with her, they are really meant to be together, my mom and dad just fought all the time so they had to get divorced." 

I just thought I was so proud of this adult stepdaughter for navigating through steplife. 

also, funny thing with my SS30 (got him when he was 9) he was cooking giant steaks in a cast iron skillet with butter and searing them wonderfully-  me and DH were watching him and hanging around the kitchen and SS30 says "Why are you both staring at me?"  and DH didnt say nothing and I say "I dont know, parents just love to stare at their kids, We think you are pretty much amazing." and DH says "Yeah." 

then SS30's gal says "thats right!! parents love to stare at their kids!!" and she starts laughing and being happy cuz she loves her kids so much.  

and SS30 who is quiet intervert like my DH  just keeps searing awesome steaks and makes no expression. 

also SGKID was glued to my side the whole visit and not grandpa, and I kept trying to pull DH into the games and such, but she wasnt having any of that cause she was so much in love with me, and DH told me later when we were alone that him and SS30 were talking about how much SGKID prefers me and told me SS30 said thats because SGKID can tell honesty. so that was nice.