A Family Visit

This past long weekend, which I made longer by taking Thursday and Friday off, I traveled to Grants, New Mexico to visit my brother and his family. Both of my nieces, who no longer live in Grants, were visiting with their families. I have one grand niece and two grand nephews. Naomi is my younger niece's daughter and turned 3 years old on May 24th. She is a sweet little girl and this was the first time we have met.

I took this photo of her at the playground at the "Riverwalk Park" in downtown Grants. Naomi and her family live in Dallas, Texas.

Next is my grand nephew Aiden Drake. I like to call him Drake instead of Aiden, I'm sure it drives his mother mad :-) He is seven years old and is a very active child.
We played a couple of games on a Nintendo Wii game console and had fun playing outside both in my brother's backyard and at the playground. Aiden Drake will be in second grade this fall in Las Cruces, NM.

Finally, there's Alex, who is four years old and wants to do everything his older brother does.
I'm sure he will eventually choose his own interests and will diverge from Aiden in this respect.

I was glad to see all these folks because this is the only branch of my family with which I have any communication. I'm sure I have other cousins and such but they are probably in New York state or in Canada. Growing up, our family moved away from our east coast roots and in the process lost contact with some of the family. I love the west and so I do not regret the cross country move.