Milestones

Graduation is one of them, but it was not the only one on the horizon in my family, who all joined me to celebrate. My nephew Alexandre, I cannot believe it, is 17 and will be celebrating his own graduation next year as well as the Big 18. My nieces, Sarisa and Kianna, are growing up too, both are teenagers now and working hard at that tough thing called middle school... balancing school and friends and sports has been tough for them but they are getting the hang of it! I am so proud of all three them and I have no words for how much it meant to me that they were here. We had an interesting weekend which consisted of stuffing 5 adults and 3 teenagers into our little two-bendroom house (with one bathroom none-the-less!). We had a good time though and everyone had fun with the cramped quarters, including those who 'got to' sleep out back in the tent. It was sort of like musical beds as we figured who would sleep where depending on what was going on the next morning. Good thing we got that new fridge for our wedding to fit all that food!

This is Kianna in our kitchen, she has never liked having her picture taken. I told her it was for me, not for her, and that I love her and want to see her when she is not around. So she was gracious the rest of the weekend and let me get a couple in, what a sport :-)

The day before graduation we went in to San Francisco so the kids could do the touristy thing. We went to Ghiradelli square and ate amazing ice cream sundaes and then went down to the water to put our feet in. The kids wanted to set up camp and spend the rest of their weekend right there!

The first picture (on the left) is me in the foreground, Tammy who is my oldest sister on the left and Korina who is the middle sibling (the three kids are Korina's) on the far right and Alexandre behind me (wearing my Mills Cross Country sweatshirt!). The second picture is Alexandre trying to get his mom (Korina)... I think he had ideas of throwing her in the water. In the last picture are my Mom and Sarisa. Stan is not in most of the pictures here because he was the gentlemen who went to feed the meter (thanks!)

Here is Alexandre upholding a family tradition :-)

Then Alexandre and Kianna getting into a big water fight which resulted in both of them being sopping wet up to the waste. We had to look through the back of my car to find extra clothes for them so we could go out for Chinese food afterward!

This last little series of pictures was just something I found amusing in the moment. Our feet! From start to finish: Kianna, Tammy, Alexandre, Korina, Sarisa, Stan, Mom, and me.

The kids were here from Thursday until Sunday, while my Mom and two sisters came on the same day but were staying longer so we could do an all-girls Trew Camping Trip (pictures coming). So the kids had a great time- it was the first plane ride and trip to CA for both of the girls and I would say they had no complaints! This last picture about sums up how we all felt by the end of the weekend...

(Yes, he actually fell asleep like that... for at least half an hour!)