Far Away Family

For the first time in 4 years, my husband took a week off of work that I didn't have to push a kid out for! We spent the week in New Hampshire with his family and did some vacation-y things we don't get to do on our usual weekend visits. We kicked off the visit with a family party in honor of Gramps' 80th birthday. Here are all the Grandchildren:

and the Great Grandchildren:

(and growing!!!!)

THE WHOLE GANG!!!

We don't get to see a lot of these family members, so when we do all get together I love to see how the kids interact.  I'm carefully watching for the day when I don't have to do any re-introduction of the cousins.  Getting there, I think.

We could have it worse.  We are fairly centrally located between New Jersey and New Hampshire where just about all of our family is.  I do have extended family in Ecuador that I wish my kids knew (and that even I knew better, actually), including my Grandmother who left the US to head down there and care for her own parents shortly after Owen was born.  And thanks to Facebook, I am friends with family members I have never even met in Florida and Massachusetts.  

I've taken to Pinterest for ideas on how to keep our far away family closer to home.  Make sure you check it out.  Some of the ideas on there are super cool even if your family is all in one place!