Once upon a time in January, this adorable chunk of baby boy was blessed and I just love his chubby cheeks and that fact that as the only boy he's already being recruited to hold an older sister's sweater.
Chuck, Clyde, and Carma all had other commitments - work, a church meeting, and a runny nose respectively - so Will and Jack and I drove down for the blessing with my dad. It was a lovely drive, minus two unfortunate encounters with Idaho and Utah law enforcement. I've skated by with warnings quite a few times on that stretch of freeway, so I definitely had it coming!
{Sidenote: ever since a friend of mine shared some experiences of how God can consecrate any difficulty or situation for good, I've looked for that in my life. Getting two tickets... in two states... within an hour of each other... represents a pretty serious lack of good judgment on my part. It's absolutely no one else's fault - both troopers were holding me accountable for my poor choices. Without minimizing my culpability/regret, I will say that good things have definitely come from this, um, expensive experience. A) When I left town, Chuck was grumpy with me but when I called him to confess he was his incredibly sweet self and made me feel so much better because he's The Best. B) I now have a good 'something you don't know about me' story for awkward icebreaker games. C) It has had a very sobering effect on my driving. I sometimes need a few reminders before I really learn a lesson and my overconfidence in my driving ability and comfort with the road to and from Utah had definitely led to me thinking I was untouchable on that drive. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father was patient with me and after I ignored warnings, He opted for speeding tickets instead of something more devastating like an accident. I've made that drive half a dozen more times in the past year and I think I've topped out at maybe 83. Last but not least: D) it led to someone reaching out to me in an incredibly compassionate, generous, and unexpected way that meant SO MUCH to me that weekend and I have more confidence in that relationship now than before. Moral of the story: I should have held to my end of the bargain that Chuck and I made on our first date circa May 2003 that I would quit speeding, but I'm also grateful for growth and tender mercies that accompany challenges - even when the challenges are completely of our own making!!}
Luckily we arrived safe and sound and the cousin bonding started immediately! We divided and conquered at Thanksgiving Point: Grandpa and Quinn's family headed to the Natural History part and my kiddos and Sam's family and Grandma Pam opted for Natural Curiosity, where once again Miko proved to be The Best at convincing Aunt Jana to climb up and slide down things that make me feel claustrophobic haha:
We ended up back at Quinner's house for the night where we ate dinner and played with as many toys as possible before bedtime!
Bright and early the next morning we all headed for Sam's church building, all determined not to seal our extended family's reputation and be the last to arrive ;). The blessing was so, so nice and I loved being able to be there for it. Baby Sammy was pretty happy that cousin Jett was in attendance:
I always love catching up with Terri's family - I mean, technically they're my family too, seeing as how her dad is my 16th cousin twice removed. Super surprised we haven't bumped into each other at a family reunion or something ;). And Terri's cute newest sister-in-law Brooke and I are 9th cousins once removed! Obviously we've decided to skip addressing each other by our real names and jump right to the more endearing 'cuz'.
Speaking of cuz...ins... I kept piling them onto a couch for a picture - we had one kid from each family... then Will hopped in... so then we plopped on Jett...
and then sneaked Remi and her snacks in for a better across the board representation from the whole family: Sam's first and fourth, Quinn's second and third, and my second and third.
Baby Sammy is a pretty loved little boy - by this group and all the extended family that couldn't make it!
After church (where someone definitely thought Quinn and I were married, ewwww), we regrouped back at Quinn's for the afternoon. I coordinated a game of 'school' for the kids - they partnered up to prepare lesson plans in various subjects and it was basically adorable:
Grandma Pam was able to stick around for the beginning of school - Jack played an inspiring trumpet solo and Will led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance haha.
Hazel and Isaac were darling as they instructed their students in the ways of upper case AND lower case alphabet letters:
Bailey and Jack were the intrepid math instructors.
Meanwhile, there must have been a soccer game on upstairs because Quinn looks pretty zoned in to the TV ;).
Pretty fun to watch my dad with his newest little grandson!
Sammy even busted out a darling smile for us! I think it was Aunt Eden who coaxed it out of him :).
This Sammy opted to make a more terrifying face for the camera hahaha.
We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying our time with my brothers and their families.
Ahhhhh cute cousin pictures are always so bittersweet because I wish that we lived closer to both sides of our families... alas, I survived nine months living in Utah once but don't think I could do it again, so frequent road trips it is! Sam and Terri have pretty much the most beautiful family ever and I loved that Jack and Will and I could be there for baby Sammy's special day.
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