Family reunion

My Dad's only brother, our Uncle Bob, thought it would be a good idea for all of us to get together.  I hadn't seen my Uncle or my two cousins since my Dad's funeral.  My Dad was a CRAZY Cubs fan (to put it lightly).  Unfortunately the weekend we had planned to get together the Cubs weren't in town.  So we did what every Cubs' fan would do...we traveled to wherever they were playing (story of my childhood).  Luckily they weren't too far away, this time.  They were playing the Milwaukee Brewers, which is only three hours from Chicago.  I'm really glad we were able to see everyone again, it was a lot of fun. 

I forgot my Cubs shirt. :(

Chris and his cute girlfriend Kassi.  They rode up with us to Milwaukee.

Sean will do whatever it takes to get out of taking pictures...that includes driving. :)  

Miller Park

Right when we met up with my Uncle and cousin it really hit me how much my Uncle Bob looks like my Dad.  It's a little scary.

It was SO nice outside!  After church on Sunday we took some pictures in my front yard.  I was actually cold there at night, I forgot how cool it gets in the evenings there.

Sean keeps saying that we should only visit my family in the summer, and then go see his family in California in the winter.  Haha, sounds good to me.

My little brother Chris, at least he's a good sport. :)

It's crazy how green it is there, especially compared to Texas.

 Before dinner on Sunday I drove around for a while by myself.  I went by some of the places my Dad and I would go together, it was good...and sad to see them again.  I drove by his Indiana practice and saw the sign of the new dentist that bought it.  I obviously knew my Mom was selling his practices, but it hit me pretty hard when I saw the name of a different dentist up instead of Block Dental.  Sad times.

Sunday family dinner.

 Grandma Gin, Chris, and Dave.

Uncle Bob, Guy, and Dan.

It's the first time in over three years all of us kids have been together.

Mom with her kiddos.  Even my Mom is taller than me!  Ahhhh, I'm a midget!  I honestly hardly ever feel short, except for when I'm with my brothers.  They range from 6,1'' to 6,7''.  What happened to me?

There's been some bad storms in my parent's neighborhood that have knocked over a bunch of trees.  My mom thought it would be "cute" to take a picture on one of them that fell down, oldest to youngest (my Mom wasn't supposed to be in the picture-we just weren't heavy enough to keep it from flying up).  Please notice how my feet don't even touch the ground.  Mom-love you, but it's not cute.  We look like hillbillies.

Grandma Gin with all her grandkids (minus Debbie).

The whole gang...just missing a few people.

Chris and Kassi, <3 them.

Sean wanted in on the hillbilly action.

We made a little detour while driving back through Missouri to meet up with one of our favorite cousins, Mark!  He's going to school up there-it was good to see him again!

It was really good to see everyone.  It stinks that now going home just means missing my Dad, hopefully it's not always like that.  It's still weird without him there.  I was going through some of his things in the attic, and it brought back a lot of memories.  We're pretty lucky to have such a great Uncle that still wants to get together with all of us.  He arranged the whole little reunion, bought the tickets, took us all out to lunch (which if you've seen any of my brothers you know that's a small fortune), and made all the travel arrangements to come from Boston.  He's great.  Not just his looks, but even his mannerisms reminded me of my Dad.  I don't know why I've never noticed it so much before.  We missed you Dad, hope you were smiling down on us.