I was eating french toast today and randomly remembered that my oldest nephew, Kimball, always smelled like maple syrup when he was little because he ate pancakes and waffles a lot and the smell of the syrup seemed to seep from his pores. I lived with Troy & Jamie for a summer when they just had Kimball and Cole and it was a fabulous summer. Kimball and I became great buddies since we spent the majority of the time sleeping on the same air mattress and I would wake up with Kimball practically sitting on my face. Such good times. Cole was only 1 at the time and showed his distaste for me getting him out of his crib instead of his mom by slapping me across the face when I reached for him and said "good morning sunshine". Sunshine he was not. But, he became endeared to me for forever because I share the same disgust for mornings.
That summer was the first real introduction to being around my nephews and nieces a lot and it got me hooked. Now I have so many cute kids to smother with love and it thrills me. Now if I could only convince them to move closer to the east coast...anyone? Come on, I will babysit for free....
But really, I love all of our nieces and nephews and I miss them dearly. I miss the craziness and laughter that all of them provide. I mean, look how cute these kids are!
Peterson family nieces and nephews with my parents (it is rough to get them to all be happy at once...)
Six of the eight Bessey grandkids with Ryan's parents. The two missing are the adorable Analise and ElianaAny of my family that reads this post can read through the subscript that I NEED MORE PICTURES OF THE KIDDOS! Ahem, family that struggle to update their blogs... :)
On another note, Congress is in the midst of their August work period and I am in heaven. While my boss and the district staff slave away in Idaho working, I am living the high life in DC. I have had the entire week off of work and let me list what I have done with my time: slept, read several fabulous books, sat by the pool reading, watched more ESPN with Ryan than I have ever watched in my entire life (and in turn impressed many people with my updated sports knowledge) and a few other random activities on the side. It has been truly wonderful. My staycation has been all that I wanted it to be and I don't want it to end. The good news is, I only have to been in the office for a week and half before we get to go and meet up with Ryan's family in Aruba for a family vacation. Not a shabby August if I say so myself!
While I am on that note, I will take a moment to dispel a rumor. We received a lot of calls in July in my office yelling at us for my boss taking his "August vacation". This is not true people. Most members of Congress take a few of the days for themselves but they are actually working incredibly hard in their districts and have incredibly busy schedules while they are home in their districts. My boss has spent his month so far touring his district and meeting with people all over southeastern Idaho. It is a lot of work so if everyone could stop yelling at me, I would really appreciate it. ;) I personally love August because our district staff is in charge of everything and it gives me in DC a great break from setting all of the details up! Whew, I am glad I got that off my chest!
That sounds like enough of an update for now!
