la familia

One of the highlights of having people come and visit us in Montana is having an opportunity to share the natural beauty of our surroundings with our loved ones. A trip to Jerry Johnson hot springs always delights visitors with the oohs and ahs of hot, thermal waters, huge, mossy cedars, and naked, silly hippies...









So we knew April was going to be a busy month. We started the weekend with my sister and her glorious team of seven, the Lineage dancers, hosted in my basement. I need to add, quickly, that my house has two very tiny bedrooms (to give you a picture, in our bedroom, you have to shimmy to the side in order to maneuver between the dresser and the bed frame to move to the other side of the room) and a finished basement. Five of the girls were downstairs while my sister and Caterina slept on a futon pad on our living room floor. It was very slumber party, very girlie, very fun.

The girls left on Sunday and my most beauteous mama arrived the following Wednesday. My mama, bless her tremendous heart, who is currently forty-eight hours out of knee replacement surgery. She wanted to see her sweet girls before she faces months of incapacitation and difficult rehab. Yikes. It always means the world to me to have my mom in Missoula. I made such a bold choice when I moved out here -- all seven of my siblings still live in California. For my mom to make that huge trip, alone, with a bunk body to boot is pretty amazing. So mama stayed for a week, had plenty of love-time with her granddaughter, shacked up in the teeny bedroom for a few nights while Jeff was in Glacier for work, and then crossed path with the six Kesslers who arrived the next Tuesday. While all of Jeff's peeps were staying up at his folks place, it still made for many a lively, mildly chaotic, laughter filled meal, and lots of logistics and decisions to sort through. They left today and Jeff, Eliana and the quiet in our house put us in a euphoric, catatonic stupor. Elie fell fast to sleep for an almost three hour nap while Jeff and I wandered around the house without speaking. I found myself mindlessly dusting the furniture while Jeff swept and did the dishes. Cleaning has never felt so fun because it didn't have to be done. Nobody was coming to dinner, nobody, that is, until my father arrives with his wife on Thursday. Gracias a Dios!

And here's the lowdown. Why are all these people coming to visit? My little tyke. And while she is the most personable, go with the flow kinda chica, even she needs some quiet every now and then. So I send big love to all my family who traveled over many mountain passes or through various airports to share in the splendor that is Eliana. To watch her fine form crawl and cruise, to watch her gummy little shark mouth suck down avocado and sweet potato (heck, she even tried some smoked salmon this morning for breakfast!), to speak "ahhhh" and "mamah" with her, and to feel her soft cheeks, her sweet breath, her waving hands and wiggling fingers. I am so proud of her, so proud of the way she relates and loves and gives of all her self to the people in her family. And, I have to say, I'm pretty glad to have a few quiet days with her alone before the next lovefest begins....