Kiwis

One of the things I love about my family is how international it is. Although our parents still live in the states where we grew up (mine in Nebraska, T's in Alaska), my sister lives in Texas and is married to a Taiwanese American. T's sister lives in Oregon and married a Londoner (Londonite?) with Jamaican heritage. His brother married a kiwi (New Zealander) and lives in New Zealand.

Cool, huh? Except this means that it's rare for everyone to get together at the same time.

Later this month, my sister, parents, and I will set a record for get-togethers in our adult lives: three in four months. And for Thanksgiving, T and I got to see "the kiwis" for the first time in four years. 

While here, Nancy finished the gorgeous blanket she was working on for Rainbow.

Rainbow got to spend a lot of quality time with her Aunt Nancy and Uncle Boddy.

As often happens, we packed a lot of activity into the end of their visit. We pushed poor 12-week-old Rainbow to the limits with an all-day visit to Washington, D.C. followed by an outing to the Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware the next day.

In front of the Washington Memorial, which is being repaired after an earthquake.

Go ahead, say it: "Jenny!" "Forest!"

Stopping for a coffee break after bad Indian food for lunch. (Boddy and Nancy learned the hard way not to let me get too hungry.)

Ethiopian food for dinner. It was delicious!

Don't be fooled by the fact that Rainbow is asleep in all of the above photos. She was actually awake for a good chunk of the day.

When it's time to say "so long" to family, I often comfort myself by thinking about the next time we might get together. But this is harder to do the farther away somebody is. 

And despite the numerous ways we have of communicating--email, Facebook, Skype, blogging, phone, text, etc.--nothing, absolutely nothing, can substitute for that first "hello" hug or make that final "goodbye" hug less sad. Boddy and Nancy, we miss you so much--already.