Great Family Times!

I love this time of year as family near and far gather together.
We all had a wonderful time on Thursday at my sister-in-law Susie's for Thanksgiving, and then we were lucky enough to spend more time visiting with family over the weekend.

Last Saturday night my niece Erin hosted a get-together for my nephew Thomas (Thomas is her brother and they are my oldest brother Tom's children). Thomas is in the Navy and he was stationed in California for a few years, he lived there with his wife and two sons, and while there he was deployed on the USS Halsey to the Gulf region for a year.
We have seen Thomas' boys (Thomas and Eamon) over the summer when they were staying with my sister-in-law Ann for a few weeks, and Jayden had lots of fun visiting and playing with them (unfortunately Jayden had a fever so he had to stay home and missed this visit with the boys). But we haven't seen Thomas in a while.
He has now transferred to the east coast and is stationed in South Carolina. His wife's family lives in New Jersey so they drove up to share Thanksgiving dinner with them, and then they spent the rest of the weekend with my sister-in-law Ann at her home. Saturday was Thomas' birthday so it was a two-fold get-together!
It was so nice to see him after being away for so long, and I'm so happy that they are closer and plan on future trips to visit with the family.

Here's some family photos:

Left to right: Edward (my older sister Marybeth's son), Thomas (the guest of honor!), Brian (our oldest son), Erik (our second son), and in the back is William (my younger sister Diane's son).




Here I am with my older sister Marybeth in yellow, and my baby sister Diane in red. Marybeth was here from Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with her kids.




My sister-in-law Ann with her son Thomas and daughter Erin.




My niece Rachel (Marybeth's oldest daughter) with little Jimmy (Marybeth's grandson).




This is Thomas' oldest son (also named Thomas) with little Jimmy. His younger son did not want his picture taken but...




...I did sneak a picture of him when he wasn't looking. Eamon is on his Mom's lap (Tracey), also in the picture on the left is my grandniece Sarah (one of Marybeth's granddaughters), and her Dad Jimmy is standing in the background, sitting to the right is my sister-in-law Ann.

I love Erin's apartment, I love how she decorates, and I love how she displays family photos (in the cabinet behind Tracey and Ann are old family photos, there is a picture of my Dad in the Coast Guard, and a picture of Ann when she graduated Nursing School).





Mia with our daughter-in-law Lori.


Mia had all her little people and ducks lined up on Erin's coffee table and she wanted Grandpa to take a picture of them, when he went to snap it Brian stuck his head in too! And...


...Mia was not amused!






My niece Erin, my niece Rebecca (Marybeth's second daughter), and my grandniece Katie (Marybeth's oldest granddaughter).


Here's just a few random crowd pictures:


We really had a good time and it was nice to see everyone again!