Trip to Austin

Last Thursday afternoon we hit the road to go to my parent's house. My brother Matthew turned 17 (!!!) so we met everyone there for a long weekend. It's soooo chaotic when everyone is there- Michael came in from medical school and so my parents, all 6 siblings plus Ryan and our two kids were all in our little house! I absolutely love the chaos though. It's such a joy to me to be part of a large family, even though it's hard to see it sometimes when I'm caught up in all the drama of what an 8-person household entails. But I love that we're all getting older and we can all "hang out" as life-long friends and not just siblings trying to pull each other's hair out (or burn eyelashes off, whatever. ;-). As wild as it was growing up (and Alex wasn't even born until I'd already left the house!), I wouldn't wish it were any other way. Gosh, we (I) thought we had it so rough because we didn't necessarily have all the latest-and-greatest gadgets, and some of us had to share rooms... And we had our share of family problems... But really. We had love- and we still do. I really hope I can raise my kids just as well! I hope they respect us as well as I respect my parents, love our faith as much as I was raised to love mine, and love each other as much as I love my siblings. I hope Ryan and I have a boisterous house full of chaos and love.

alex and luke being silly in the kitchen. luke admires those uncles!

matthew was such a good sport with that mean cake i made for him!

beth has discovered her love for the finer things in life- chocolate cake.

michael discovered some icing.

a cool new rope swing in the backyard. so much fun for two boys!

david and luke playing in the backyard. probably chasing a cat.

beth found him!

luke and michael, i wish i had one of my brothers here every day to play with him!