Togetherness With Dave’s Family in the Desert

Dave’s oldest brother had a big birthday. AND his little sister and family came to town for their spring break. This, in Pothier terms, equals PARTY. Like, a week-long party. Ha! I love any chance for togetherness with Dave’s family.

It’s interesting how life keeps changing. There was a time when so many of us in Dave’s family had little kids and lived close. We would gather pretty much every Sunday night and all those little kids couldn’t get enough. If it happened to be a holiday, there would be all kinds of shenanigans among the kids to figure out how to sweet-talk the parents into sleepovers (cousins are the only way they got sleepovers back in the days and oh how they loved each other!).

Then, all those little kids grew up. Many of them are now married with multiple kids of their own. And as kids grow up, the easy simplicity of gathering starts to disintegrate. All those kids have extra commitments, as do the parents. And all of a sudden, one day, you realize you can’t even remember the last time you gathered.

So, as you can imagine, it’s extra special when things come in to play to wrangle us all together. And that happened this month.

When We Gather We Really Gather!

Bob’s Birthday Party

Dave’s oldest brother turned 60 (!). When we realized this was happening, I had the grand idea to send 60 texts with all the things we love about him. Dave had the idea to get him to the desert to celebrate with everyone. Dave’s idea was obviously the better one. So Dave made it happen.

I sure love that guy, and the chance it helped create to gather and celebrate that great brother of his.

Poker Night

Poker is one of Bob’s favorite things, so we had a poker night.

Our house was filled to the brim for dinner and then the game room lined up with tables piled with poker chips, all those people we love playing poker.

Lots of us had no idea how to play, so the ones who did were patient and taught us (especially Bob). Can you tell how Lucy felt about that?

Since Julie and Carol Lynn were in town for their spring break, eight of the nine siblings were there to help celebrate.

Other Gatherings

The night after the party we hosted whoever wanted to join in to gather.

I am working so hard on being more present so I turned off all the busy-ness that was waiting for me and just hung out with those people I love.

We sat and talk, talk, talked in the living room first.

Some deep and connecting Pothier family discussions ensued, which I’ve been missing, so it was pretty special. We sat in and out of the hot tub and did some cold plunging for a couple hours too just enjoying being together.

Survivor Night

Then lots more joined in for Survivor night (a Pothier tradition).

Brain Food Packing

The next day a bunch of us gathered to pack food at BrainFood…

…and then had more family discussions at Steve and Kara’s. We talked through relationships and how much to be involved in the intricacies of each other’s lives when we’re all adults. How relationships need to be filled up with so much love before you can really get deeper. Interesting things.

Stayed as long as I could before having to pry myself out of there to whip things together to get out of town for Iowa.