recap: this weekend

i spent this weekend with my family, the people in my life that i consider as close as sisters, although i don't talk to them as often i should.

they are all marrying up and having babies and its just lovely blah blah.

let me introduce everyone.

from the left: peter, my cousin alyssa's husband, and he's holding baby luke, who is now just over 2 months. alyssa is in front of him; brianna; ryan, juliet's husband; juliet holding babay cael, who cries almost every time he is out of his mom's arms; suzette; and then aunt susie and uncle eric.

i just love spending time with all four of the girls. i always have. when we were younger i would beg my mom to let me visit and spend long weekends or summer weeks and we would spend long afternoons by the pool, sipping slurpees and playing poker. i was always so envious of their close relationships...all four of them. but they always let me in while i was there, at least after i grew up out of the "demanda" stage (thats another story).

now that we're all (almost) in our twenties (susu will be there in a matter of months) the age differences have evened out and we're all sort of on an even keel. its amazing to see jule and lys starting their own familes, and i know it will be some time before i want to do that on my own, so i am happy to learn from them...

beyond that, everything is as you expect it. juliet's baby wears ugg boots and tiny button down shirts and she seemed to effortlessly lose her baby weight and is back to her slender, tan, blond self. not like any mom i know!

my aunt, who used to get squirmy when my brothers were around because she was not used to troublesome boys and their constantly stickty hands, is just giddy about the baby boys. as juliet says, they're just so over the girl thing.

now brianna is looking pharmacy schools and may be moving away from vermont, perhaps to philly, in the next year. i have to say, that might be the most awesome thing. if there is one thing that has suffered in the years since my grandparents passed away it was the close ties that bound our family. if we all lived close...within three hours from me and my parents and all of them in pennsylvania...maybe we could start to grow some of those ties between the younger generation. lord knows our parents (well, lets be honest, our moms, who are sisters) are too preoccupied with the daily dailances of life to think about this.

but as i grow up and start to take stock of my life, i know what is important to me. family is important, and these are the closest thing i have, beyond my parents and brothers.