My mother, sister and nieces left today to go back home.  It was so incredibly hard watching all of them leave.  There are little reminders of them everywhere I turn.   It's so easy to get used to having them around as part of our daily lives; coming to baseball games and practices, going to the library together, having someone to sit around and have coffee with in the morning, that when they're gone there is this enormous emptiness in their place. Goodbye is the hardest word word in the world to say.We are making our summer plans already though, and boy what plans are they!  If everything goes like we hope, it will be a summer to remember for sure.  I can hardly wait!  I'm already making "must-see" lists and highlighting subway routes.  I'll share the details as they confirm, right now they are just marvelous plans floating around in our heads.  :)

Besides celebrating Sprout's 1st birthday, we took a trip over to St. Augustine, visited my favorite French bakery, spent the day at the Museum of Natural History, went picnicking, and did so much more in such a little amount of time.  We had our girls nights at home after the kids were all snuggled in bed.  We watched our favorite movies (mostly Jane Austen ones) and enjoyed a nice glass of wine.  We laughed, we cried and we yelled at each other.  Because, well, that's what family does.  And, as always, we created memories and loved. Spending time with my family always reminds me of how incredibly blessed I really am.  Sometimes, it's so easy to get caught up in the little things that bug you about life and we tend to lose focus on the really important things.  Like family.  Not only am I blessed with an incredible husband and children, but those incredible people extend to my grandparents, parents, brother and sister and their families and all the way down through all of my aunts, uncles and cousins.  They are all so wonderful and I thank God that I have such unique and special relationships with almost every one of them.  Life is good.