1+1 = 28 and counting

This last weekend was so fun. My mom's parents, grandma and grandpa England celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on March 6. Everyone was there. My cousin Brian whom I haven't seen in 7 years flew in from Chicago with his fiance I've never met. My cousin Matt flew in with his two little girls whom I've never met. My aunt Kathy and uncle Jim flew in from Rhode Island and Maine with their 14 year old daughter Rachel. It was just so awesome to have the whole family together again. The last time we were all together was Christmas of 2000. We were only missing two, Mason who is on his mission and my cousin Steven who had finals and other stuff going on that would not allow him to come out.

I took two days off work so I could spend some time with the family. Thursday my family and Rachel went skiing at Snowbasin. It was so fun! I'm not a big time skiier, only once or twice a year, but I love it. It had snowed quite a few inches the night before and they didn't have it all packed down the next morning so there was fresh powder to ski on and it was awesome! Right before lunch I was hitting the slopes with Ryan on his snowboard and I hit a patch of powder and it caught my skiis the wrong way. My right ski flipped and got stuck but my body kept going down the hill. Well I got all twisted up and usually your skiis will pop off when you crash but they had my bindings on tighter that usual so my skiis didn't pop off. As a result, my right knee got twisted pretty good and I could barely walk on it for a few days. It feels ok now, but it will be at least a week or so before I can run on it again. :( I'm really sad. I was just recently getting back into the running thing and getting back in shape. It seems like that always happens, whenever I make a good effort at getting back in shape something happens to hinder that. Not cool.

Friday morning the adults went to the temple while they left with the kids with the older kids AKA...me. I had the two older boy cousins but let's be honest, they weren't that big of help when it came to getting all the kids breakfast, getting them dressed, teethbrushed, hair done, cleaning the kitchen and keeping the house straightened so my aunt didn't come home to absolute chaos. Sure, they would step in and keep the kids from killing eachother when it got a little too out of hand but anything short of that they just let me handle, how kind. Friday night the whole family went out to eat at Maddox in Brigham City, which was of course really good.

Saturday morning we all got dressed up and took family pictures in front of the Ogden temple then we went to ABC Mandarin to eat an amazing chinese food lunch. The rest of the day was spent just relaxing, eating, playing games, eating, taking naps, eating, going bowling, and eating some more. I'm pretty sure I gained close to ten pounds over the weekend with all of the eating out, the junk food, and the endless bowls and bowls of gummy bears that grandma ALWAYS has set out and are magically replenished.

So now I am back at my apartment in Provo and I'll be honest, I am sad. It makes me sad to think about how many years it may be before I see Kathy's family again? How many years will it be before we're all together again? But I guess it's not good to dwell on the what ifs and how comes and instead focus on the reason why we were together. We were there to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of two people who mean the world to me. 50 years! That is incredible! I want to know their secrets. I want to know how you marry someone and love them just as much, if not more, on your 50th anniversary as the day you married them? What keeps you together? How many times do you have to re-fall in love over the years? How many times did they want to pull out or give up and didn't? How did they get through the hard times? How did they raise four children who now have families of their own? And what does it feel like to have your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren all in one room and see how your family has grown? A family that started out with just two. Now I have yet to be in that situation but I hope that someday I'll be able to know what that feels like. But from the look on my grandparents face I can tell you it will be amazing. It brought tears to my eyes as I saw tears well up and eventually spill into a stream down my grandparents cheeks as they looked around the room at each member of the family. I honestly believe they saw a glimpse of heaven in that moment and if that isn't happiness, then I don't know what is.