This week my family and I have been able to spend so much time together. My great grandma just passed away, and we have all gathered for the funeral. It is a very sad time for our family, but it is also a fun time being able to go through old pictures and memories. I come from a fairly large family with LOTS of cousins. This is such a different change of pace and volume for me, considering I am normally the only kid in my home. Although it is overwhelming and noisy at times, I would not change it for the world.

Being a student athlete in college has made it where I do not get to see my extended family as much as I wish I could. Luckily, I go to a college close to my home and get to see my parents frequently at my volleyball games, but it is still difficult to see my more distant family. I have a baby cousin who is about 15 months old and I feel like I missed several months of his life and the changes he has made are ridiculous! Before he was barely crawling, and now-- he is practically running all over the place! It’s crazy how fast things can change in such a short amount of time. From the little ones starting to grow up or the older ones passing on. It’s easy to accidentally miss out on the important little moments. But the little moments are some of my most favorite memories.

For example, some of my favorite memories are from countless Christmas Eve’s spent at my great grandma’s house. My whole family and I would always load up and drive out to her farm in the country, and our parents would always point out airplane lights and say it was Santa’s sleigh. LOL. Then, when we would get there, we always had a big dinner and read the bible story about Jesus’ birth, and then everyone would open a few presents. These are my favorite memories of my great grandma and I will treasure them forever.

I also have a bunch of memories with my cousins. My cousins and I would take string and crisscross it all over the living room and pretend like it was laser-beams and we were spies. Or we would hop from furniture to furniture to avoid the “lava” on the ground because we were “shark boy and lava girl”.

Or when all the cousins would go stay a week at grandma and grandpa’s house with “NO PARENTS. WAHOOO!” We had so much fun running around, staying up late, going to the fair, swimming, eating chocolate ice cream pops, and much much more.

Some of my favorite memories are spent with my family. They have been with me for every important step of my life. I’ve grown up with them, laughed with them, and cried with them. I have not spent as much time as I probably should with them now that life is so busy. So whenever you start to get busy with your hectic life, take a minute and think about the last time you went home. Or the last time you called your parents, grandparents, etc. Life can change in just the blink of an eye, so soak up the special little moments while you can.

FOE- Family over everything.