Sunday was amazing. I spent the whole day with my whole family.

That’s my family…

My older brother, Billy, lives  and works just minutes from the main campus at Penn State and the rest of my family (mom, dad, me, & Hannah) live in Pittsburgh. I hate living 2 hours away from my brother because we have always been close growing up, with about 4 years age difference between us. I just miss him so bad sometimes.

My parents, sister, and I all woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning and drove out to PSU to visit my brother. With one stop at Dunkin’ Donuts we arrived at his apartment around 9:45AM.

What my family did on Sunday:

• Attended the church that my brother worships at, Penn State Church of Christ.
• Had lunch at an Italian pizza pub (so, so good).
• Checked out Wegman’s for the first time. It was pretty amazing! I got some pumpkin granola and had a soy vanilla latte.
• Walked around the PSU campus and shopped in the little stores that sell clothing & such.
• Visited the famous Penn State Creamery for ice cream.
• Walked around the alumni gardens
• Hung out at my brother’s tiny apartment with his cats.
• Had dinner at Cracker Barrel (<— one of my favorite restaurants.. one word… CORNBREAD!).

Pictures from Sunday:

Portabella pesto salad from the Italian pub. I asked for chicken on top too 😉

The homemade herb bread that came with the salad and balsamic dressing.

I was so excited after this picture was taken because I realized that squash was growing from the “ceiling”

How do these not fall on people’s heads?!

Hannah playing with one of Billy’s cats, Simba.

Dinner at Cracker Barrel. Two fillets of rainbow trout, baby carrots, mustard greens, pinto beans, and (unpictured) corn muffins. I ate everything. It was amazing.

Thoughts:

• It was so nice to spend a whole day with my whole family.
• I haven’t smiled so much or laughed as hard as I did on Sunday in a while. Seriously, I couldn’t stop laughing sometimes.
• I miss my brother so much. I really wish he didn’t live two hours away. I also feel bad that his apartment is so small. I know everyone has to start out somewhere and that he’s happy, but I know it must be hard to pay his bills month to month at a new job without any financial help.
• I’m going to make a trip up to PSU by myself to visit my brother soon. We are going to get into so many shenanigans. He wants to show me his favorite running trails, have lunch (or every meal..) at Wegmans, and cook together like we used to when he lived at home.

I had a really special day with my family and I’m so happy that I could see my brother and just hang out with the family that God has blessed me with. No, we’re not the perfect family, but we all love each other so much and I’m so grateful for them.

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Bible verse of the day: Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Psalm 127:3