Uncle Ron came to AZ

This last Thursday Grandma Pearl met Uncle Ron up in Billings and together they drove down to AZ in Grandma's new car. She still had the car she purchased 20 years ago, so Ron found a nice 2006 Buick at a great price. Now, Uncle Charlie is gonna drive around her old car. Sumer and I agree that he'll be stylin' in it!

We once again had a family dinner on Sunday. It's was a lot of fun! Got to see Pam, Mel, Paulette, Clara, Robert, Todd, Julie, Sumer and Tyler, and of course Grandma, Ron, Charlie and his crew. We had a wonderful time with our extended family and getting to know them better.

We found out that Charlie and Candy are planning on getting married next April on a cruise to Barbados. That's cool, and everyone is invited to attend as long as you can pay for your way.

When we were leaving, I had a great moment with Uncle Ron. We were hugging goodbye and he told me that he loves me. It actually made me stop and think for a second. That was the first time an uncle has told me that. It made me realize that even though we don't know each other very well, we still love one another. I know I love my nieces and nephews and always will, so why wouldn't my own uncles (or aunts) feel the same? I just thought that was really neat and I wanted to share it with you all.

Irony

So, I just realized, after talking to our cousin Josh this afternoon, that the first member of our family that will get to see both Ashton and Millie in person is our cousin that we haven't seen in almost six years. I think it's a bit ironic.

Visit with the Shaws...Not a duplicate post ; )

Today we had a dinner over at Grandma's and Charlie's house. Josh, Melanie, and Simone Shaw are here on their way to Disneyland. Shelly, look out for them. They'll be there Wed-Fri.

Quite a bit of family made it up. Sumer was there, as was Mom's cousins Todd, Pam, and Paula and her husband Greg and the oldest sibling (I don't remember her name). Aunt Clara was there and so was Robert. There was another lady there who was blond, but I don't remember her name either. So I'm not too good with names, sorry.

We had a lot of fun and had some good food. Uncle Charlie smoked chicken and it had the best seasoning mixed into it. I contributed Southern Banana Pudding made with Nilla Wafers and everyone loved it.

I kept getting comments on how much I look like my mother and I took them as great compliments! It was nice, because then everyone knew how I fit into the family.

Next week we'll do it all over again, except we will exchange the Shaw's with Uncle Ron.

Visit With the Shaws

We got to visit with Jon and Pam yesterday. They had come to Missoula to visit Pam's folks and drove the extra few hours to stay with us last night. I had NO IDEA that our families mirrored each other so well.

Emma and Kyra are both 7, good students, a bit dramatic and hit it off with each other perfectly.

Abby and Megan are also close in age (6 and 5), a bit boisterous, good eaters, hard workers when they choose.

Matt and Jacob are a little further in age (Jake turns 3 in May) but they played very, very well together out in the dirt with Matt's big monster trucks.

Millie and Ethan didn't have much in common except that they're both the babies and cute.

And here's Jon.

We had a lot of fun visiting with them and look forward to them coming back (hopefully) in August.

By the way, look at these cute leggings Cindy sent Millie. So cute!!