My parents had their first child (a sweet little blonde daughter) on their first anniversary.  
For reals.  On the very day.  
And I was born 18 months after that.
We have never really known life without each other and I am sooooo grateful for that wise sister of mine who helped me through everything from figuring out how to not wet my pants in kindergarten (ha!) to how in the world to write a college application essay.  
And sometimes, when you both grow up and have five children and you live in separate states and you each have eight siblings and their families to keep in touch with as well as ten zillion carpools and extracurricular things going on, you don’t have all the time in the world to catch up.  Even at Bear Lake every summer where we do love to talk deep into the night, there are a whole slew of people to catch up with.  One on one time is rare.
So I was so grateful that I got to have my sister come visit for a couple days last month.
Just me and her.
It was a little bit of Heaven.  
I love that the first picture we took together was this:

 …and that this was the second one:

Because man alive we like to find good food :).

And then we like to talk about every aspect of that food.

We’re weird like that.

We love to take in the ambiance of places as well.  We loved this cool courtyard.

And then after I dragged her to a whole slew of antique stores in the city (which she “gets” as well), we had to stop for our favorite salted chocolate chip cookies at our favorite bakery.

(It’s a tradition when any of my sisters are in town…love this bakery.)

Saren tagged along on a few carpools and watched Grace cheer.

She sat with me and watched Claire beam that we would be watching her at gymnastics, as understood as I teared up because I can’t believe my daughter can do stuff like that.

This was a meager attempt to capture her with my towering teenagers at the airport.

But my favorite thing was our hike.

I didn’t pull out my real camera (dang it), and there are much better pics. of that hike back HERE taken by Elle a few months back.

But as we hiked higher and higher, our conversation got deeper and deeper.

We not only took in the beauty but we got to reconnect like we hadn’t in a loooonnng time.

We lost the path a little bit and had to climb straight up a few places.

But oh boy, was that perspective ever beautiful!

Sometimes, from a little higher perspective from higher ground, life somehow becomes much more clear.

And even more-so when you have a “higher perspective” from your older, wise sister.

So grateful for her.

She wrote her own details of the trip complete with some old pictures over HERE.  And I love this other post she wrote about sisters HERE.

Love you Sar!

Now to spend more one-on-one with my other seven siblings next week.  Can’t wait.

12 Comments

  3. Oh, Shawni, it was so great to be with you! Thanks for letting me jump into your life for a few days. Loved the chance to reconnect and get lots of great perspective and inspiration from you!

    Reply

  6. Sister time is so great! I was born exactly on the day of my parents 4th wedding anniversary. My Mom said at midnight the nurse asked if they would like to be alone for a little while before they became a family of 3. She said no, I'd just like to be 3 right now 🙂

    Reply

  9. Salted Chocolate chip cookies? I really need to check that place out 🙂 Can you share the name, please!

    This is the first time I've visited your blog. You have beautiful photography!

    Reply

  10. The bakery is called La Grande Orange.

    Mmmmm, makes my mouth water to think about it!

    The restaurants we went to were Windsor and we also went to Postinos.

    Mouth watering again 🙂

    Elle doesn't seem to think shoes are necessary most of the time (especially on a car ride to the airport and back).

    Reply

  11. That's why Elle needs a parent – to tell her that shoes are definitely necessary – that it is not appropriate to go barefoot in a public place.

    Reply

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