Earl Girl Reunion 2009

In January I posted that all I wanted for my thirtieth birthday was for all my sisters and girl cousins to get together. Kim and I had talked about having such a reunion when she came to visit in the summer. Angie and Daishan had a similar conversation. After posting my feelings about getting together with my cousins I had an overwhelming response. It seemed that everyone had the same desire. I received a lot of comments. Then Daishan sent out an email because she really wanted to get together too but the weekend we had been discussing she was blessing her sweet baby Landon. I had suggested the weekend in February because I actually had that Saturday off which never happens. I talked with Daishan to try and coordinate a better time. I knew that if we changed the weekend there would be no guarantee I could be there. Angie did a marvelous job making plans and arrangements. My schedule for the month of March came out February 18th. As I suspected I did not have the weekend off. I immediately emailed the only Captain in LAX who had the weekend off. He responded really quickly that he would love to help me out but that it was his anniversary. I then emailed the head of scheduling/utilization. I didn't hear back from him. That got me worried. A few days later I received an email from another lady that they were "processing my request". Finally a few days later I received an email from different lady that my request HAD BEEN GRANTED! Hallelujah. I was nervous because they had denied some requests earlier in the month. I was so excited.

I left Friday evening for Salt Lake City. I arrived at the airport around 6:30 pm. Kacey was picking me up. It took a little while for her to get there because she got pulled over...she was going twenty over and didn't have current registration. Luckily she only got ticketed for the registration. Rhode was bawling when I got in the car. Poor guy! I will say that my words did sooth him for a few minutes. We headed straight to the restaurant. Can you believe that all my girl cousins from college age on made it to this reunion. There were fourteen of us and three babies. We did miss having our in-laws there. But I am proud that so many made such an effort to be there. We ate at Mimi's Cafe. Everywhere else had over a two hour wait. We were all starving. We talked like crazy and ate. Two things that we are very good at!

After dinner we went back to the house that Angie had rented for all of us to stay in. It was two stories and had probably around six bedrooms and three bathrooms. It was perfect for us. We just stayed up talking like crazy until around midnight. The biggest struggle was trying not to miss any conversation as several would sometimes occur at once. Poor Lindsay had to go to bed right when she we arrived at the house because she wasn't feeling very good.

The next day we woke up and just started chatting again. I don't think I could run out of things to talk about with all of them. Then everyone took turns showering and getting ready. We all went to lunch at Cheesecake Factory. It was a pretty long wait for a Saturday. Not to mention that the hostess about freaked out when we tried to bring Rhodes car seat with us to the table. I thought we were going to have an altercation. We kept telling them we were fine just being swished with the car seat (we had plenty of room). They just wouldn't drop it. It was really weird. Lunch was delicious though.

Myca and I out in front of the house just before lunch.

Back at the house we had a photo shoot. It wouldn't be a real reunion without one. We did a normal shot, a talking shot, and a sexy shot. I pretty much have the most beautiful family!!
Then we all got cuddly on the couch and talked some more.

I had to leave around 7:30 to go back to the airport. Daishan and Brit took me. The flight right before the one I was getting on was cancelled so my flight went from wide open to oversold in 2.2 seconds. I made the flight but I had to sit in the flight deck. It was a short trip for me (24 hours) but well worth it.

I hope that we will all make the effort to get together regularly in the future. My cousins and sisters are truly my best friends. I think of the childhood that I had and feel so blessed that they were such a significant part of my life...a significant part of who I am. Maybe that's why I don't have very many girlfriends outside my family. I have had all the love and support I need! What an amazing group of women they are.