After a long weekend where it seemed like my husband and I did not
stop "going" it's nice to sit at home, in my yoga pants, sip on coffee,
and relax with the TV on in the background. We traveled back to Rapid
City this weekend for my sisters high school graduation. While we were
there we were able to catch up with family - some that we haven't seen
since Christmas - and spend some much needed bonding time with our
nieces that have literally grown up before our eyes. We left after work
on Friday and then the festivities began right away on Saturday
morning. My sister had her graduation party on Saturday at my parents
house. People from all over came to give her gifts and celebrate with
her. She never found high school "easy" so this was a huge
accomplishment for her - one that she didn't think would ever happen
some days.
She
has always had such a "baby face" (although she HATES when people say
that) and so when I see her I still think of the 10 year old sister that
was just moving onto middle school - not graduating from high school.
Our afternoon was filled with snapping lots of pictures, grandma's
wonderful homemade potato salad, and seeing people that I haven't seen
in what seems like forever - whether months or years in between seeing
people it's always nice to catch up. It was great to meet some of her
friends and see what they've all "grown up" to be. Some of her friends I
remember coming over when they were in daycare and preschool together,
and now they're still friends today and graduating. It was so cool to
see those kids again and to see what they've been doing these past
literally 10 years.
Saturday
evening our nieces from Gillette arrived - cue the happy music and
chaos! We have 3 full of energy nieces - the oldest is Emma and then the
two twins, Sammy & Ellie. We saw them at Thanksgiving this year and
every time that we are able to see them again it seems like they've
grown into totally new kids. They walked in the door and after hugs
from everyone we sat down to talk about all the first grade drama from
the year - the friends they have, the boys they don't like, and the
achievement they've made. I love little kid conversations - which is a
good thing when it comes to my twin nieces because they would talk all
day if you let them. After they went to bed we got to hear about the
happenings of our older niece - Emma. She is seriously a little adult
now.
Sunday,
was graduation for my sister and Ryan and I literally went all day
long. We went to breakfast with my family, and then graduation a few
hours later. Seeing my sister grab her diploma was bittersweet. I'm so
excited that she is coming to our side of the state for college - we are
so much closer now that we were before I left for school. Have I
mentioned in this post how proud I am of her! :)
The
rest of the day before dinner with the family was spent on the iPad,
and having a tea party with the 7 year old twins. Man they are funny.
Ryan and them sat and played Angry Birds on the iPad for at least an
hour - it was fun to listen to them giggle with Ryan and to hear Ryan
laughing along with them as they would release the bird way to early on
the game. They would always blame it on him, and they thought it was so
funny to keep doing it.
Then
we had a tea party - complete with a tutu and hat. Gotta love the
imagination of a kid - they dressed me up all pretty and promised that I
looked beautiful as they poured me "tea" (or water) into my cup and ate
pure sugar with their chocolate chip cookies. That night we had a
bonfire at Ryan's parents house with his mom, dad, sister, brother in
law, nieces, brother, aunt, and grandma. We sat around the fire, made
s'mores, and told tons of stories from their childhood. It was relaxing
and refreshing to sit with a snuggling 7 year old on my lap, eating my
guilty pleasure of burnt marshmallows (which I had too many of, as the
girls thought it was hilarious to burn every marshmallow they had just
so I could eat it) and listening to ab-hurting stories.
I
hope your weekend was as relaxing and refreshing as ours was. Ryan's
back to work today and I have laundry going, cleaning up to do, and some
school stuff to get back too.
Until next time!
