One of the silly things about our lock-down is that my earring holes keep trying to close. This is odd to me since I regularly work from home and wouldn’t think I would be putting in earrings any less. Ah well. As Chris and I drove down the road I mentioned that the last time they closed was when CJ was a baby. I stopped wearing earrings for a few years since the little ones kept grabbing them.

That conversation occurred a bit before last Thursday — a day which found me heading out for an afternoon lunch with 2/3 of my sisters-in-law (Susan and Heidi), 2/3 of my nieces-in-law (Jessica and Vicki), a sister of one niece-in-law and two grandchildren of my sister-in-law (Kelsie and Kasey). The kids and family were visiting from Florida. I hadn’t seen the eldest in a few years. And I never met the baby, who is two months younger than our Avalon.

During the day, Vicki mentioned that she doesn’t wear earrings anymore — for the same reason I had mentioned to Chris a few days before. That was super relatable, and being around the little ones flashed me back to happy times.

It was so delightful playing with the girls and catching up with the nieces and sisters. Jessica teaches piano, and Vicki was telling us a bit about life in Florida. Our heat is nothing compared to theirs!

It was great hearing about their lives.

Kelsie really connects with animals (her favorite of the day was a stuffed anaconda she was carrying around), and I enjoyed sharing a book my friend Linda had written with her.

Kelsie is a very dedicated older sister who really enjoys playing with the baby and watches out for her. It seemed the hardest part of the day for her was being patient while Kasey took a short nap.

Young Relatives Meeting

I sent a message to Lauren in Utah and asked if she and Avalon would be available for a FaceTime call. The images are blurry, because there are a lot of moving parts, and they are screenshots after all. That said, I think you’ll still be able to appreciate the adorability (yeah, I made that word up) of the visit as the young relatives met.

At first Avalon seemed a bit hesitant, wondering what she was looking at. Her parents say she is often serious like this, but I don’t usually see that.

I showed my face along with Kelsie’s and Avalon broke into a grin.

Next thing I knew, the two were yakking away to each other, and on my end, I could see Kasey reaching out for Avalon, trying to touch her. It was so adorable.

I tried getting a screenshot of Kelsie with Avalon, but was unsuccessful since Kelsie moves around a lot (as all young ones in this situation should). Wish I had realized that she wasn’t showing much at the time because the meeting was quite cute. Kelsie actually sighed when she saw Avalon. Ha ha

After lunch and a walk, the rest of the afternoon was filled with chatter and hair braiding and laughter.