Ohio!

Last month we went to Ohio for a funeral and despite ridiculous travel, the kids had a great time! Here we have all of the cousins together for a rare picture. Katelyn's arms are JACKED - she must work out.

(from left to right: amelia, matt, zoe, katelyn)

Look how cute Zoe is cuddling with Tom on the plane. I can't believe he even got a picture of this because most of the time she screamed.

THIS cracked me up. They are buried right behind Tom's grandparents.

Amelia being spidey-silly in front of Tom's grandparents' grave.

The flight home...finally we all slept... It was bad. Very bad. If we had the money I'd buy our own plane so we never have to fly commercially ever again...

Aunt Betty

Tom lost his Aunt Betty this weekend - somewhat suddenly. She was his beloved aunt and stand-in grandmother after his grandparents died. Amelia got to meet her a few times and above is a great picture of them when Amelia was only 9 months old. Amelia has been pretty cute about it and last night during prayers at bedtime said, "Thank you for Aunt Betty who had to go to heaven today." Admittedly this was a bit prompted by me as I sent her up to do bedtime with Tom. Tonight, however, as I was starting her prayers she interrupted me and said, "And THANK YOU FOR AUNT BETTY." Then Tom came up and she told him what she said and he gave her a big and she told him to stop squishing her hand. But then she said, "What was Aunt Betty like, Daddy?" We told her that she is lucky because she now has another angel looking after her and to make her feel safe if she's ever scared.

The lesson for us this weekend we think is that both Tom and I have been incredibly lucky to have people from generations above us in our lives for so long. They got to see us grow up, find a spouse, and have children. Not many people can say that. But it also makes it a little bit extra sad because we each have lived our entire lives with them and we both grew accustomed to them always being there. It's a bit like losing a parent. It's hard when you don't feel like you got a chance to say good-bye.

Family resemblance anyone?

Here we have some family comparison pictures - Amelia looks shockingly similar to her Aunt Becky and Zoë looks shockingly similar to me. Or as Aunt Becky said, "You have one of me and one of you." :)

First we start with Zoë - Mommy comparison...

Mommy, Winter 1979

Zoë, September 2010

And now we have Amelia - Aunt Becky - Grandmother comparisons

Aunt Becky and her special pouty face...

Amelia and her special pouty face...

My grandmother - the day Amelia was born Tom said he thought she looked like my grandmother. I told him he was nuts. How annoying that he was right...although not annoying that when I look at Amelia I can be constantly reminded of my grandmother who I miss so much every single day!