Fun with Cousins!

It has been a long time since my last blog post. The last month has been a rough one filled with lots of memories of my mother in law and a lot of extra work for Bob and his brother. They lovingly cleaned Grandma Betty's apartment collecting pictures, albums and other personal items and spent a lot of time together. The kids have had their moments of sadness at the thought of never seeing grandma again but the great thing about raising kids who love and know God is that they have a great deal of unquestioning faith. As we adults ask why now and what might we have done differently Annie marvels in the fact that "Grandma Betty is meeting the most famous person in the world - God!" They certainly keep it real for us.

The other thing that our children have learned, without a doubt, through this experience is that when you are as loving, kind and generous as their Daddy is people are incredibly gracious with their sympathy and love during times of loss. Our entire family has been blessed with an outpouring of continuous love and support throughout this experience from visits and food to cards, letters and masses. So many of Grandma's friends from K-Mart have sent us long letters telling us how special she was to them. Friends and relatives from all over the country have sent mass cards and words of love. Many of the people from the building where Bob works have sent flowers, donations and letters in Grandma's memory. And then there is our immediate family who have showered Bob and I and the kids in attention - meals, time and endless patience as we struggle to accept and move forward from this loss. Every time Bob got a little down something or someone would arrive to raise his spirits - it was an incredible feeling to be a part of so much love!

I have many pictures that I wanted to share but I downloaded them to my work laptop and then proceeded to spill water all over it and crash it. At some point I am hoping to retrieve them but for now I will start with our last weekend pictures. My cousin Todd from San Diego and his wife, Michelle and two beautiful daughters Cassidy and Jillian came for a day at the beach to catch up after not seeing each other for a while. We had a blast just playing on the beach and spending some time together.

The day was overcast but the kids could have cared less - they loved eating out on the deck.

Ready for a trip over to the beach.

Cassie and her cousins ready to play!

Cassidy is a little beach baby so she had no problem jumping in the water and playing with the girls.

Annie bananie loving have her cousins to play with on the beach.

Surfer girl.

Ellie Bean LOVES the beach!

My Lizzie Bug warming up for her next trip over to the beach !

Papa hanging out with Cassie and Katie.

My gorgeous goddaughter.

Grammy and Katie bonding!

Katie got new clothes for her baby!

Uncle Todd and Jill!

Peter and Tyler are loving being at the beach lately because they have a bit more freedom to go for walks to the playground and hang out with friends.

My girl on top of the rock.

Even Annie's Pouty face is adorable!

Molly and Jill were inseparable!

Lizzie Bug!

Trying to get a cousins picture!

The girl cousins!

Cassie - she is the perfect kid for this auntie - she poses for pictures.

The boys on the beach.

The MEN trying to move the boulder for Papa! Look at those muscles.

I love this one with all the boys - they had so much fun!

Katherine Shannon - such a sweetie pie.

molly getting some snuggles from Cassie.

Bob, Todd and Patrick

Molly loves Aunt Michelle - she kept telling me that she was so young and cool! Watch out Michelle and Todd - as soon as sh can fly alone you may have a mother's helper out in San Diego!

Jill giving kisses to Papa!

We had a great time with our West Coast cousins - next plan is to save up to buy an RV so we can head across country for some more family bonding on the other coast!

GNM - ILY!