A Family Gathering

The relationships I share with my siblings are some of the deepest, closest and most meaningful relationships in my life.  While there are certainly challenges to being roughly the same age, one of the rewards has been closely following one another through each life stage.  From high school, to college, to careers, dating, marriage and now children - we've been in step with one another all along.   It's been fun to be apart of each others lives and now that we are all starting families of our own, adding nieces and nephews to the mix has been an absolute blast.

Uncle Jonathan reading to Nicole 

I love any reason or excuse to get together with my family so when my sister Angela initiated a group conversation about celebrating my dad's 60th birthday, I knew that I absolutely wanted to try and make it work.   My dads birthday isn't until October but since we knew that we were going to be in town this month for reviveWisconsin, everyone cleared their schedules and made plans to celebrate a few weeks early.  My dad knew that everyone was coming into town but he didn't know that we were gathering with the special purpose of celebrating his birthday.   We had a wonderful time! 

Nicole (21 months old) with cousin Abigail (10 months old)

In this particular season of life, we are all juggling nap times, early mornings and early bed times which makes it difficult to get out of the house together.  Somehow we managed to squeeze in a group trip to the Farmers Market and an outing the the park which included a train ride for all and a perfectly sized toddler play ground.  

On the train and Marathon Park

As I am sure you can imagine, the kids spent lots of time playing together in the pajamas, reading books and eating breakfast.  It felt like the first glimpse into all of the sleepovers the cousins will have together when everyone is bigger.  

Angela reading a book to her twin boys, Caleb and Issac and cousin Nicole

My Aunty Joy is the only relative we have who has ever lived in the same town as us so we know her very well and she's always been a special part of our crew.  She usually works on Saturday but managed to get the day off so she could spend the whole weekend with us.  Her dog Gunner was a gigantic hit among the littles!  

Aunty Joy with Issac and Gunner

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come and have a great weekend together!