SISTERS - Marcia's Visit February 2016

I have always thought of myself as very blessed to have six sisters almost to the point of feeling bad for those who do not have a sister to share their life with.  With having only one daughter, I was very thankful for her "girl" cousins and hoped that she would bond with them, like I did with my sisters.  I never felt bad that I didn't have a brother, I never really thought about it much.  But I have thoroughly enjoyed raising boys and I can say I have a much better understanding of the male species because of having boys.

With mom getting older, I try to plan trips out to Ohio to see her.  When I do get to Ohio, I get to see five sisters also.  But there never seems to be enough time to really visit.  Thinking back over the last year and a half, I was super blessed to have quality time with Teresa during Joe's surgery.

Then in June of this past year, Lisa got to join me in Banff, Canada and that was a trip of a lifetime.  It was so pretty and we had such a good time just getting to know the adult versions of ourselves.

And now most recently Marcia came to visit.  We couldn't believe that the last time she had visited, Ben was only like 2 years old or something.

Marcia arrived on a Wednesday evening around 9:00 p.m.  She had come from visiting friends in California.  Our weather was absolutely perfect while she was here as you can see from the photos.  I am very invested in the "gym" right now, so I had asked her if I could spend Thursday and Friday morning at the gym.  She was fine with that and Thursday morning after taking Ben to school I went and did my work out.  Once I got home and showered we headed to downtown Grand Junction to get some lunch at a place called Cafe Sol.  It was so nice that we ate outside.  Afterwards it was close to time to pick up Ben from school.  He has a very organized parking lot with staff coordinating the parent pick up.  We all line our cars up according to grade level and the staff person tells us when it is our turn to enter the pickup loop.  Marcia was taking photos of the process and she even hung out the window to get a picture of Ben walking to the car.  He loved that.  :)

We got home and made supper and then that evening we drove up to the Colorado Monument.  I really wanted to get some good sunset photos.  I was able to keep up with the hiking and that made me feel good about my fitness progress.  Later that evening we watched our photos on the TV.  We have Apple TV.  She had the photos from her last visit and then the photos we had taken so far.  The boys stayed downstairs and visited.  It was nice.

Marcia and Ben at The Colorado Monument

Colorado Monument at Sunset

Colorado Monument

Friday morning I went to the gym again.  I was given a super hard workout.  OMG.  I came home and Marcia and I took off at about 10:30 a.m. for Arches National Park in Moab, Utah.  There is a whole lot of history here and I wish I could repeat it, but I am not that good at recall. We did watch a short video when we got there and then we did the driving tour.  We got out and hiked at one point and I was so happy that I could do it.  Every other time we have come to Arches, I opt to stay in the car for the hike part.  Part of that reason is we come in the summer and it's like 105 degrees, but the other part was I wasn't in good shape in the past.

This was called Balanced Rock

This was the hike - this was called The Windows.

Here we are in the window!

It was such a beautiful day and we had such a nice time talking with one another.  Although there are only five 1/2 years difference between us in age, I really didn't know much about what she did once she moved out.  She would say remember when I lived here.  And I was like, uh, no.  But honestly, and this will sound terrible, the biggest thing I remember each time someone moved out was how exciting it was to get a new bedroom.

These one on one visits with Teresa, Lisa, and Marcia have just been awesome.  Mary is planning on visiting this summer and Laura and I may go on a trip together sometime soon also. Perhaps Donna and I will find some time also.   I am very thankful to have sisters and I am thankful for any time we get to spend together.  Thanks for coming to visit us Marcia!