Eleven

We celebrated a lot this year.  It's been a fantastic year!  I got pleasantly snarled in the photo albums and spent a lot of time reminiscing before I finally got around to writing this post.  While I had a good time with the dusty albums it didn't top Anniversary Date night with my tied-for-favorite guy (the other one is shorter, younger, blonder and had to stay home with a sitter tonight much to his chagrin).

This year I think about all the wonderful things going on in our family.

click photo to enlarge

My cousin Sarah, just next to Travis, was a member of the bridal party and played piano at our wedding.  She got married about a year and a half ago, FFM was the ring bearer, and she and her husband are expecting their first child. 

Sarah's brother, James, is in the front row 4th from the right (next to my Mom).  He  just graduated from the University of Kansas this May.  

My cousin Matt, next to James, is here in Denver now at pharmacy school at Regis.  He and Lindsey got married in May.  Another rip roarin' party for us, especially for FFM who got to carry rings again and dance with all the bridesmaids.

That handsome ring bearer and beautiful flower girl?  He's a great athlete and aspiring farmer who is hoping to be off to Colorado State University to study agriculture in a couple of years.  She just started her freshman year of college, a whole year early.

Emily, the pretty blond in the top left corner, she's a fantastic artist and is now teaching high school art.  This summer we got to see one of her original metalwork pieces and it was stunning.

See the tiny baby in the back?  That's Skylar, my cousin.  She tested into the gifted and talented program in her junior high this year and one of the best soccer players I know.  I'm so proud of her!  I'm also really proud of her brother, Ryan, who was just a twinkle in his parents' eye at this stage of the game.  He is so kind and generous and I'm glad he and FFM get to grow up together.

So much has changed since this picture was taken!  Our siblings are all married now, new lives have come, and a few have passed on.  I see family that have retired, sold businesses, changed career paths.  We've all journeyed through quite a bit of life since this photo was taken, and I can think of so many joyous occasions we've all been able to share.  I think of all the happy stories we tell about this day, and anticipate the ones we'll tell in the years to come (I think since were no cousin stories generated from Matt's wedding that the rules state there must be twice as many from the next wedding...you know who you are!)  Here's to many, many more years of all of us together,

xoxo,

Maggie and Travis