Family Ties

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family."
Anthony Brandt

Our trip was awesome, but what made it so great was that we went with family. I saved this post for last because it is the most important. There were 12 of us that went to Punta Cana. We almost all have big birthdays this year so this trip was extra special. My mom turns 65, my aunt Liz turns 60, my cousin Ann and her husband Mike turn 40, my other cousin Jessie turned 21, Paul turns 30 and Amelia turns 1. Milestones for most of us! I think we all look pretty good too. :)

One of the things that makes me the saddest (sorry Mom) is that I am an only child. My mom and her sister are really close and so are all my cousins. But although I have no siblings, I have cousins whom I am very close with so that makes me pretty well off.

Here is a picture of my mom and Aunt Liz who are looking great for 60 and 65 if I do say so myself....glad I come from good genes!



Living almost 5 hours away from most of our Chico family we don't get to see them as often as we all would like. As my cousin Ann stated so perfectly, 'life gets in the way of us seeing each other more often.' But this week was a great time to spend some time together. Alex basked in the attention from Jack & Nick and loves his Tia Ann (yes she is really his cousin but so what?) and especially loved Jessie. He had a great time rough housing with my Cousin Chris and Mike as well. It works out great that Paul gets along so well with Chris and Mike and the three of them had a great day golfing, despite some crazy rain storms in the middle of their game.





My mom also loved spending some quality time with her grandchildren at the beach. Amelia especially loved playing with Nana's hat.




My aunt Liz doesn't have real young grandchildren anymore (Jack and Nick are 11 and 9) so she seemed to have fun spending time with my kids for the week and pushed Alex all around on this raft while he sipped a smoothie. Not that my kids are spoiled or anything....



When I was a little kid I totally idolized my cousin Ann, and I still think she is totally awesome. She is a great mom, makes incredibly cool jewlery now and is one of those people who is just good to the core. I also think my cousin Jess is a great girl. She is smart as all get out and also just beautiful. I always feel a bit homely between the two of them....but still make us take a cousin photo every time we get together.



I think my son will now idolize Ann's boys....and Amelia will too. Jack and Nick are good to the core just like their mommy and are growing up to be incredible boys.



Alex & Amelia also had some extra good sibling time. I just love this photo of Alex playing peek a boo with Amelia, she is laughing her big belly laugh at him in this photo.



We also got in a few good family pics of the four of us, which is always a nice thing to have.



So another big thank you to my mom and Aunt Liz for a wonderful vacation. I wish I could have taken more photos, but I am happy with the ones I have! Now I need to get scrapbooking!