A Little Sunshine

Elias and I went to Arizona for 5 days with my dad, step mom, little brother and two little sisters. 

It was 70-80 degrees the entire trip as well as super sunny! 

We went horseback riding, swimming, shopping, walking, long boarding, and zip lining. We ate In and Out Burger, my nana's amazing Ruben's, and some great pizza. We spent time with my Nana, Papa, Uncle Matt, Aunt Jackie, my cousins Evan and Erin, and my big brother David. 

Here is the whole family!! My dad, Step-mom, little brother, two little sisters, and my family!

Here is my beautiful little sister Alyssa and her boyfriend Reese.

Plane ride to Arizona!!

My little brother dosen't look too happy...

My dad took us girls (Me, Alyssa, Mariah) to Dunkin' Doghnuts when we realized the coffee my grandma made was decaf... no wonder we all had headaches!!! 

Oh yes! Swimming in January. We nearly drowned my dad trying to steal his noodle from him.

My beautiful sister Mariah and a horse.

We went horseback riding through the desert next to the mountains. 

A restaurant near the "gold mining town" where we had a meal. After this, Mariah and I went zip lining. 

My handsome boy!!

Bernard Joseph Connors
Bernard Joseph Connors II
Bernard Joseph Connors III

Working our tan... Elias already has a built-in tan, but hey! It was good vitamin D.

My Uncle Matt and His family.

Four Generation Photo

Playing Mexican Train Game with my Nana :) Good Times!
Apparently we never did play it correctly.
And my Nana never won even though she cheated.

To get away from the chaos of life (and the chaos of MN weather) was awesome! 

And out of my whole trip, my favorite thing was that I got to reconnect with my siblings. I remember all growing up how my parents used to tell me how later in life my siblings would mean a lot more to me then when I was younger... they were right! 

My older brother David and my sisters and I.

The relationship I have with my brothers and sisters is so cool!

My brother and son in Walmart cart together :)

My oldest brother got to tell us all about his job and his girlfriend. We got to hear the hard things he's facing in his life, as well as laugh about the funny things we did when we were younger. I also stole his sweatshirt and made him buy me a shirt from In-and-Out Burger... just like old times ;)

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I got to reconnect with my sisters. We laid out in the sun and tanned, we took a LONG 3 mile+ walk to get coffee, we laid on the cold patio and looked up at the dark sky until midnight, and we wrestled in Nana's living room floor just like the olden days... I won of course...

Chowing down at In-And-Out Burger!

And now, with my little brother Tres, I get to build new memories with him. We (my sisters and I) wrestled with him, chased him around, watched the baby channel with him. Mariah especially gets to beat on him to initiate him into the family... just like we used to do to her...

AND my step mom is pregnant! 

Yes, I am going to be a big sister... AGAIN!!!

So it will be:

David

Me

Alyssa

Mariah

Tres

????

My sisters and I came to this conclusion: although we all "grew up" with the "same parents"... we all lived COMPLETELY DIFFERENT lives and turned out as COMPLETELY different people! When my parents divorced, it changed everything. I turned into an outgoing city girl, David a social worker, Alyssa a skater/tattoo artist, Mariah more of a hippie, and now Tres is growing up in a completely different generation then we did. We all have different views on life and we all have different horrors that we have faced. 

It's strange how you can be related to people, but turn out so different then them...

Me and my son doing morning devotions .

AnYwAyS...

Missed my love. Missed my girls. Now I am home. And I miss the sun!