Nothing Better than Family Together

The blog has been a bit quiet this week past here at Roses’ Ridge as we had big dealings: My only sister and her family flew across the country to visit my husband and I for the last several days.

Being one of the more far-flung members of my side of our family which are all mainly on the east coast, a visit is a significant event from anyone. I have been excited to have a house full of smiles, hugs and catching up in person instead of virtually.

We made good use of this time together and were so focused on each other that and being in the moment that we didn’t spend a tremendous amount of photography or social media shares.

Our family time started every morning with snuggly morning hugs from the kids and went through every day until hugs goodnight. Each hug was a treasure, as if the giver and recipient knew these had to last us for a while going forward.

Days were filled with exploration of our local area, watching movies, eating out, eating in, wildlife watching, catching up on stories and experiences of late and soaking in Wyoming and it’s beauty. Our niece and nephew are twelve-year-old twins and I loved getting to hear and see what their stories are like through their eyes and perspectives. You just can’t make up for this kind of together time over texts and phones.

My sister and I have always had a close relationship and time with her is precious when we have it. Through thick and thin, the core of our closeness has never wavered. She married the best brother-in-law a sister could have in this world. He is the type of person that makes every family chat on any given topic ten times more interesting as he has a wide spectrum of interesting knowledge on just about everything we talk about. He is also THE guy you need when traveling – he can manage you through pretty much any unforeseen situation on that front.

Being from North Carolina in the piedmont region, our niece and nephew don’t get to see a tremendous amount of snow so we were happy to oblige them with enough to play in. We had just had a winter storm come through so it was fortuitous timing indeed! We were actually worried we wouldn’t be able to get to them on their arrival to Denver International Airport, but it all worked out with a slight delay of us picking them up after roads were clear.

My husband was our all-terrain driver throughout the stay and was the only reason we were able to get out the first day or two. We rented a 4WD Ford Expedition to haul us all around together, but even that didn’t make it off our land at one point once the wind picked up and snow blew around. So the hubby’s hunting truck “Blue” came out and all six of us indeed made it off of our ridge (once we got off our property, all roads thereafter were fine).

If anything can possibly make up for being a family member far away, we can ensure everyone takes away memories of a new place the kids had never visited for their spring break to bring back with them and enough love to cover the distance until the next time we are all together. Because after all, that’s what family does.

‘Til next time we are together – we love you all so very much.