Visting my Little Brother

Mark, my little brother turned 30 last year. Which means I am old! He also bought his first house. Somehow, while I was busy with my own life and figuring out how to be a grown up, my brother was as well.

This has been a bit of a crazy year for us – Daniel's work schedule has been a bit nuts (improved since he left nuclear, but still busy), and Mark has been busy himself – renovating his new house, working full time and traveling the world with recent trips to both Europe and Australia.

Before he left for Australia, he asked if I had time to pop over to Nashville to hang out and see the improvements he had made to his house. Daniel was actually in Colorado for work, so I thought a road trip with the boys would be fun.

When we arrived in Nashville, Mark took us to get groceries and also to get the boys to pick out belated birthday presents for themselves. The kids loved this. Jack picked out a new kind of nerf gun (it shoots balls instead of darts) and Isaac got a truck with figures. They were in kid heaven.

We also went out for ice cream at Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream. It was amazing. More kid heaven :)

For dinner, my aunt and uncle and one of my cousins came over to visit. We had such a lovely time catching up. Mark is becoming quite the cook and it's nice to see him in his own element.

Jack loved sleeping in a little couch fort Mark created for him and the next morning Isaac helped Mark make breakfast. I hope my kids grow up remembering all of these sweet moments.

We said goodbye to Mark before lunch and headed to the airport to pick up Daniel. It worked out for one of Daniel's sisters, Emily, to meet up with us for lunch, so we were able to squeeze in a little extra family time before heading home.

Speaking of feeling old, Emily has grown up too... she was barely a teenager when we got married!