The little brother’s graduation in Utah with all of my siblings. I love that we both graduated from the same MBA program and only a year apart. It was fun to be back a year later and think about what the last year has entailed. I’m excited for Justin and his family and their new adventures!
Hanging out with these kidlets at the rock gym in p-town. I don’t know if I ever seen something so cute!
I got to go to Utah this weekend to spend it with my entire family for my dad’s 70th birthday. I am number four of five siblings and my dad was not super young (at least not by the standards of the time) when he married my mom. It makes sense. But it’s weird to think he’s five years older than my grandpa was when he died. Life and death. Such interesting things to think about.
Anyway, it has been four years since my entire family had been together. Coordinating such a gathering for 17 people is kind of crazy. That’s right. There are seventeen of us now. In my effort to not overly orchestrate the entire thing (I tend to be the planner of these things), I made no real plans other than we would be going to dinner on my dad’s actual birthday. It was great. And low stress. We played in the snow. We played at this indoor gym. We played at my brother’s house. And we ate. And ate. And ate. And ate. (Pictures of the gathering and playing to come…I did not take any eating pictures.)
Oh, and I ran with my younger brother and sister-in-law. And by with, I mean we followed the same route. They are both quite a bit faster than I am to begin with and then you add in the altitude that I’m not used to, and well, I ran 9 miles for their 10.
So, a couple of thoughts from the weekend:
I love my family. I mean, we have issues, but I really do love them. Especially my nieces and nephews.
I have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world. (I’m not biased at all…). Seriously, from the 16 year old to the 2 year old, they are just so adorable. It is so fun to see them develop and grow and become their own little people (or big people…my nephew has got to be at least 6′ now). I also decided I cannot have children because the odds of cuteness just aren’t in my favor. I mean, after seven absolutely darling cherubs (it’s a term my grandma loves), I can’t imagine I would get so lucky. And they LOVE me. There’s nothing that makes me smile more than my nieces or nephews say, “Hi Auntie Chlo-Chlo” or “Cwo-Cwo” as is the case with two of the littles.
Running at altitude is not easy when you’re not used to it. And running down the canyon that has no been plowed and has four inches of fresh snow…is cold and wet. Really wet. More to come on this. It deserves it’s own post.
My family is a bunch of enablers when it comes to eating. Doesn’t matter how hard you try, somehow my sister and her “I need a treat” just sucks you in. And of course, she’s the skinniest of us. (Okay, I’m really just putting the blame on her…we all did it.)
I love that I have somehow managed to get my brother and sister-in-law on this road race bandwagon. While I don’t love that I’m the slowpoke, I do love that they will be running the half marathon with me a few weeks from now.
I am too old to be flying the redeye and thinking I will somehow be functional. At least I was smart enough to plan to work from home today, so I got to take a little nap. But seriously, not my favorite thing. And this time around, I had a kid who decided he needed to lay on my shoulder while he slept. I was annoyed.
I love New York, but someday it’s nice to take a break every once in a while!
And this has nothing to do with the post, but everything to do with my week as I’ve been listening to this album non-stop (when I haven’t been hanging with my fam) since I downloaded it last Tuesday. Adele is just amazing!
I’m pre-dating this post so that it follows right after my dad’s birthday on the blog. Here are some photos of the nieces and nephews. I can’t believe how big the older ones are getting. And how grown up the younger ones seem. It was also fun to take some action shots of them. My brothers and sisters will be so sad if I ever decide to stop taking pictures…
Probably my favorite pic of the whole sledding expedition!
The same niece, looking a little less crazy. 🙂
Can you see the mud flying?
Love the tongue on this one…this was her face down almost every run.
My oldest nephew…I can’t believe he’s almost 17. And my niece who is almost 8!
My nephew wore his hat like this basically the whole time. Trust me, he was having fun, even though you can’t see it on his face like you can on his cousin’s.
I know those of you who follow me on Twitter know about my awesome adventures with canceled flights and the resulting extended vacation, but now some pics from the trip. I had so much fun hanging out with my fam and I’m so excited Justin and Cherity and kids are moving to this side of the Mississippi in just a few months. And now, a series of photos and captions (this is more for my family than anything):
We got a lot of snow the first couple days I was there…Justin got lots of exercising plowing the driveway. He’s so helpful!
Cherity hanging out in the snow…we were having a great time sledding!
Do you think he was having fun? Sledding with kids is so entertaining!
Hope thought making snow angels was the best!
Tannon, on the other hand, was having a great time playing dead. Such a boy!
The family does love to bowl…does that make us trashy?
Ever independent, little miss munchkin wanted to do everything on her own, including lift her own bowling ball.
Pretending to sleep so Santa could come…it didn’t work.
My cute brother and his family – love the Christmas jammies!
Cookies for Santa…what I didn’t get a picture of was the plate five minutes later, after the dog ate the cookies. It’s a good thing we had extras.
All ready for the kiddies to come down the stairs…I helped build the dollhouse. Playing Santa is much more fun than just getting gifts.
A new ski jacket to go with his new skis and season pass. He’s lucky his dad like skiing so much!
This year we did the gingerbread houses right. Justin and Cherity constructed them the night before so they could set up and then we decorated them. Much better.
Ice Skating! This little one LOVED it!
Justin having so fun helping Hope…until she got one of those little walkers, at which point she wanted nothing to do with anyone.
Tannon, not so patiently, waiting for the zamboni to finish smoothing the ice.
Such a little sass! And not even three years old.
New Year’s Eve bowling in Utah with the New York friends.
Unfortunately Fortunately, no one got a shot of me sliding down the lane when I got a little too enthusiastic…
Today is both my brother’s and my niece’s birthday. I no longer have any siblings in their twenties! (That makes me feel old.) Anyway, they are both fabulous and I’m sad that I could be with them on their birthday, but I thought about them lots today…and at least they get to be with each other (they aren’t from the same family), so that’s fun for them.
I would write longs lists about everything that I love about them, but I’m exhausted, and one can’t read and the other one knows I love him, so instead, here is a video for all to enjoy…just because!
existential dilemmas 