We’ll remember it well!

August 23, 2010 @ 6:03 am | Filed under: Family,Pure Sunshine

There are five years between my brother and I. Growing up, I was a typical big sister – looking out for him, protecting him from unseen “dangers,” and – generally – heralding his accomplishments more loudly than anyone else.

I began having my children while he was finishing high school. By the time he began having children, my boys were ten and nine years old.

I don’t suppose we ever dreamed together of what it would be like if we both lived on the same street. Of what it would be like to have our kids and grandkids running back and forth, with large family gatherings and impromptu saturday afternoon backyard cookouts.

And yet we are very close to envisioning that very thing right now. Sprawling acreage where the kids can roam, where we can gather late into the evening – while the cicadas chatter in the background – and bask in the kinship that our kind of love deserves. We’re in the dreaming stages right now, with the hope that Kevin and his family can have a weekend place that adjoins ours sometime in the near future.

There is a sweetness to being with family…like this past week.

When all the kids – who have been separated from seeing each other for months – came together in one, long, jubilant visit that was filled to the brim with giggles, stories, swims, and sleepovers.

We crafted, we swam, and we watched late night movies while munching popcorn.

We visited the North Texas Children’s Musuem, lunched, and took the entire crowd to Chuck E Cheese (where Andi ate her lunch under the table in order to avoid Chuck E. )