Five Brown Kids

My brother John and his wife Carrie and their four kids drove down from Michigan to visit us for Thanksgiving. I had a great time! Loved watching all the cousins get along so well. And so many funny moments with people playing Scattegories and ping pong and basketball. We ate on Friday because Tyrone was on call on Thursday. Cleverly’s came over too- delicious dinner of course but we missed the Ricks. Cousins

All of a sudden my kids are grown up.  Can't believe how big they look in these beautiful new family photos.  Thanks  Crickett Photography !

Emily and I tried to figure out a combined birthday party for Scotia and Isabelle. We were going to take some friends to a local craft shop to paint tote bags but couldn’t make it work with all the schedules. Then Emily suggested we just use our money and send the girls to see Hamilton at the Durham Performing Arts Center. Everyone loved this idea! Last Friday we dropped the girls off at the theatre and then Emily and I went out for a long dinner ( Luna - so good!) and dessert while the girls got to see their show!

High school had a small cermenony for all seniors who have committed to college athletic teams. It was fun to show up and celebrate with Taye.

Crickett took new family photos for us and grad photos for Taye at Joyner park. Can’t wait to see the finals.

Tyrone was on call, Derick went out with friends, Taye had swim, Jaxon had basketball tryouts. Scotia put a costume together and biked over to a friends house for the evening. Blythe and I went to a neighbor’s house for pizza and then went trick or treating with all the neighbors. Fun evening... Blythe loved it. Friends and treats. Perfection.

A few weeks ago Scotia asked me if Tyrone might have gone pro if he didn't get hurt playing football at BYU.  I said that I guessed he might have- he had a few teammates who did.  She was intrigued imagining what it might have been like being rich. We talked about what we would have had more of if we had been "rich".  Maybe a bigger house, or fancier food.  But then we all agreed that we really had plenty of healthy food, a warm in the winter/cool in the summer house, lots of trips to Nova Scotia/Utah/beach/DC etc.  They all did lots of extracurricular activities and we had the best friends ever - spending hours and hours and hours playing inside and out with all the kids in the neighborhood. We had family friends that made every holiday really fun.  And then at the end of the conversation, Jaxon piped up, "It's like we were rich." A few days later Taye agreed that the Hedingham years had been exceptionally good, full of wonderful memories - just a ...