Quality time with family

A few weeks ago, my Aunt Mary died after a three year battle with kidney cancer. Aunt Mary was so full of life! She was loving and funny and unexpectedly snarky and I will miss her so much. I can still hear her laugh and it makes me happy. It's hard for me to write this because Aunt Mary always read my blog (and my sisters' blogs) and sent sweet emails about our stories. I always thought about her as I wrote and I hate that she's not with us today. I love you, Aunt Mary.

In the week after Aunt Mary died, we got to spend a lot of quality time with my family, including my uncle, my cousins, my parents, and Laura and Max, who flew down from Alaska to be with us for the memorial service. I really enjoyed the family time.

Max is about 6 months younger than Owen and they were quite a pair. Max has the BEST smile. His whole face lights up and you can't help but smile back at him. It was great to get in some good Max cuddles while they were here.






I wish I also had pictures of these highlights from the week:

• Uncle Doc playing with Owen on the floor
• Visiting with Uncle Doc, Jennifer, and Andrew on the screen porch at mom and dad's house
• The chaos of our stop for lunch at Subway on the way to Abilene (Owen eating s-l-o-w-l-y, Max screaming when Laura tried to get him to eat, and Opa remembering that road trip meals with babies are not quick)
• Going through pictures of Aunt Mary with Jennifer (my favorite: Uncle Doc and Aunt Mary in a dress and suit, barefoot in the 70s)
• Andrew finding cheerios in the backseat of his usually immaculate car after Owen rode back there on the way to Abilene
• Tom running from a gas station to the Dairy Queen across the highway in Goldthwaite to get me a chocolate shake while Owen and I played on the tailgate
• Quality time with Laura and Tom at the river while mom and dad watched the babies

More pictures and Laura's take on the week.