Monday, October 20, 2008

Family is Forever

Thank you for your concern and your prayers on my father's behalf. He is doing better. He will be released from the living facility today and go home for the first time in three weeks. He is excited to be home. He is still very weak, but doing better. I am flying to Utah to take care of him over Halloween. I'm so excited to just sit and talk with him. I will update you on his health after I spend some time with him. For more information on how he is doing, go to Phil Brown Updates in my family section. My sister Nikki and my family in Utah update that regularly.

Casey and I were fortunate to go to Utah in August for a Phil Brown Family Reunion. As soon as we heard of Dad's Stage 4 cancer, we knew we needed to get together. We wanted to spend time with him and get a family picture. The last family picture we took was the day after Casey and I were married three years ago. Yes, that's right, Casey and I had to come to a family gathering the morning after our first night "together". Awkward. Well awkward seeing my Dad, but just funny when everyone else, including my little nephews, were making fun of us. The photographer had problems with his camera that day, so we got a good shot, but it was fuzzy. We took this opportunity to spend time with our Dad and to get the last big group shot that we will ever take. You can't possibly imagine how hard it is to get everyone together. For the first time in ages, we had every single member of the Phil Brown family present and accounted for in this picture.

It was definitely a memorable experience trying to get one sick grandpa, eleven kids, eleven spouses, thirty-four grandchildren, and one grandchild-in-law into one photo with everyone smiling. The pictures turned out great. We were so happy. The photographer has not finished cleaning them up and we haven't picked the large group shot yet, but here are some samples of how good they were.

Here are the people that I am going to spend forever with. I love them all so much.

Phil Brown Family 2008

Dad with his 11 kids

All 11 siblings from oldest to youngest

The Patterson Family 2008