Lovin' the Fam

Family. Such a beautiful word. How many people are blessed with six brothers and three sisters? It's an especially wonderful blessing when one of them lives far, far away in the cold frozen wastelands of norther British Columbia and you hardly ever have, I mean get, to see him. When he shows up every five years or so, there's a whirlwind of family get-togethers, you laugh a lot, and you find yourself acting like a kid again cause your big brother is picking on you.

My brother Mark left the snowy North for the mild flowering vistas of Oregon for a brief visit this past week. Mark was 3 1/2 years old when I was born, and the story has been told that he stood over my crib, fist raised, repeating, "I'm gonna hit you." He's never stopped picking on me since. But we are very close anyway, as you can see from the picture below.

There was a beautiful sunset visible from the windows of my brother Galen's home after a family dinner, and I got my brothers to come out and enjoy it with me.

 All of my local siblings made it for dinner that night. We missed you, John, Dave and Tom. (And your wives too!)

None of my boys made it to dinner. (They had excuses like work and school and stuff.) But my awesome nephew Duane was there, and I like him better anyway. Especially when he brings the wonderful girl Rachel. Even though Serena seems to like her better than me.

I hadn't noticed what a great hair day Serena was having! She's so cute anyway.

Looks like little brother Doug was having kind of a rough night.

 I did my best to soothe him. It isn't always an easy job to be the big sister.

 Speaking of sisters, I was quite impressed with the way we color coordinated with absolutely no preplanning whatsoever. We are so in tune with each other!

 Linda was very pleased and surprised when Mark showed up to give her a ride to dinner after she'd been told her brother would be picking her up.

I've certainly always loved my siblings, as well as their spouses and children, and enjoyed spending time with them. Hope's fall and the realization that we could have lost her has made me treasure her and my other siblings and family members more than ever before. (Even if some of them are kind of weird. You know who you are. The ones who make me laugh the most. Yes, you.)

Jamison was definitely feeling the love for this trike, which was way too big for him but didn't deter him devoting a great deal of time to it!

 Family is love, and you can never have too much love in your life!

"And now these three remain: Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."  (I Cor. 13:13)