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| Ande, Ty, cousin Rachel Abe and Levi are probably playing in the corrals behind them |
For eight or ten years when the kids were little we lived 100 yards from my sister and her family. The five younger kids -- Abe, Levi, Ty, Rachel, and Ande -- played together all. the. time. Rachel and Ande always had a fort under the pine trees and Calvin was forever going out there to find his tools that they'd dragged from the shop. Abe, Ty, and Levi played in the corrals and ditch and dug tunnels and Calvin was forever going to find shovels they'd dragged and left. Rachel and Levi came and jumped on our trampoline and Ande, Ty, and Abe went and played their Nintendo. Ande and Rachel often played orphan Annie and in a nasally tone responded to my sister Lynn's requests as, "Yes. Miss Hannigan" and "We love you Miss Hannigan." Abe, Ty, and Levi pretended they were Jim Craig taming the brumbies from The Man from Snowy River. Back and forth between the two houses the kids went. It was a great time of our lives.
All five of the kids have stayed very good friends through the years. On Saturday the last one of the five -- Rachel -- got married in Twin Falls, Idaho and . . .
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| Levi and his daughter Addie, Kory, Rachel, Ande, Ty and Afton |
. . . all but Abe were able to make it to the wedding.
Ande drove down with Calvin and me, and Levi and Ty both flew from Maryland. Because it was too expensive to fly Emily (and son Andy) and Michelle out, they left them home. But, babies fly free so Levi and Ty brought their little girls with them. (Calvin is still blown away they had the courage to do it.)
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| Ty, Afton, Addie, Levi |
Michelle had painted Afton's toenails for the wedding and explained to Ty which bracelets and headbands went with which outfits. And though the Chinese women on the plane flocked around them to give advice, Ty and Levi didn't need it. They are fathers in every sense.
(Two of the sweetest sights for me were walking in the bedroom while Ty was reading On the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder to Afton as she fell asleep, and seeing him help her kneel and fold her arms and say prayers.)
Ty and I sent frequent updates and pictures to Michelle. It was a sacrifice for Michelle to send Afton and I know Michelle cried more than once, but I'm so grateful for her generosity because we had such a good time.
And I suppose it's never too early to start that next generation of friendships.
6 comments:
Whit took Dora to Libby's wedding--because the tickets were really expensive and babies flew free!! Haha! Go super dads!!
A few things....
-Rachel is such a beautiful bride!
-Ty and Levi are amazing!!! I do not know very many men who would do that. I don't think I would even want to fly alone with a baby! (at least not one of my babies! ;)
-I so wish I knew you were all going to be in Twin!!! I was there too, running the rim to rim and would have loved to come see you (in all my sweaty glory ;)
I love the Twin Falls temple.
And I love cousins. Oh, oh how glad I am for cousins. Especially close ones. I totally get those relationships, even if we had to ride our bikes a whole 4 miles for it. I really want my kids to grow up around cousins.
How fun to all be back together again.
I just read Gwen's comment, and my parents were there running Rim to Rim, too! (I just can't resist those connections...)
Yay for super dads!
There is nothing quite like cousin friendships. I wish we had cousins that lived that close! Every kid's dream.
Thanks for posting this Aunt Jane! I felt so honored that you all could be there. Ande, Abe, and Ty are great friends and cousins.
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