A little Family Time

One of the nice things about our family is that it is pretty big and provides lots of opportunities to see different people at different times in different places.  We are spread out all over this country from Florida to Minnesota to California to Philadelphia to Alaska and numerous places in between.  This last weekend Tracy (our niece) from Springdale Arkansas and her daughter Jess from Anchorage, Alaska came for a weekend visit.  We get to see Tracy so seldom and having her and Jess come to the house was a real treat.  And when out of towners come in, we gather those around us to join in.  Kelly came down from Bluffton, OH (Tracy's younger sister who got to see her first) and her daughter, Shelby, a student at University of Cincinnati, joined us (and of course her boyfriend Aaron) along with Sarah, Deseree, Anthony, Marianne, Reeder, Hayes, Weiler, Michael and Liz. Didn't take long before we had a crowd!

Tracy was the first born of our nieces to my oldest brother Bill.  The last time we were together was at Bill's funeral last summer, a sad and difficult time for all of us.  Consequently, we were so pleased that Tracy spent a little time with us here in Cincinnati last week.

Tracy

Tracy, Jess and our newest family member, Weiler -Clint and Marianne's new son.  Jess took an immediate liking to Weiler and he seemed to feel the same way. You just can't beat cuddling with a beautiful baby boy!


Our Niece Kelly from Bluffton!

Reeder and her MOM, Marianne

One thing about 5 year old girls these days (actually little girls have loved "dress up" as long as there has been "little girls!) seems to the fascination with Princesses, especially those popularized by Disney.  And of  course if you happen to have a supply of costumes and a little time to spend before dinner, then what could be better than to dress up as Princess.  Reeder was our first Princess!

But it didn't take long before all our girls were dressing up as a Princess.  Reeder provided the creative design! First came Marianne...

And then there was Princess Tracy...

Followed by Princess Kelly. And Kelly is of course her usual serious self...

And Princess Shelby wasn't spared...

And of course why not make little brother Weiler into a princess...

But the best part of the whole evening was just getting together with family, as many as could come.  And we missed the others- others that couldn't be here from Philly and Chicago and Saint Paul and Florida and Oklahoma and Afghanistan.  We're hoping to see each of them sometime this summer though probably smaller groups- and look forward to having everyone together in October to celebrate Amber and Evan's wedding.