In a whirlwind of events, my brother was able to come down somewhat last minute to visit Aaron and myself plus meet his niece – Rylie.
He flew into the Atlanta airport in Georgia, which is a 2 1/2 hour drive from where we live. After we picked him up at an insanely late hour last Thursday (12.8.16), we got home and he got to hold Rylie for the first time.
Thankfully, Dan traveled down with the intention of just going with the flow. There were only a couple things he really wanted to do and they were easy to accomplish, so most of our time together was spent hanging out at the house or him accompanying us as we “did life.”
During his stay, he –
- came with me to a photo session I had scheduled
- joined us for Rylie’s dedication
- inspired us to show him a couple places in downtown Birmingham
- came with us to our last class for the semester
- came to our 1st semester Highlands College Christmas Party
- ran errands with me
- taught me some cool tricks on my camera that I didn’t know
…and He chilled at the house with me & Rylie
Oddly enough, as we were headed to pick Dan up I realized I could probably count on one hand how many times I’d seen him interact with babies as young as Rylie, and he was a young kid and awkward for the simple fact he didn’t know what to do with tiny humans. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that Dan was a natural with Rylie.
He decided he wanted to be called Uncle Dan, which threw me off for a second when I said it out loud because my dad’s best friend was Uncle Dan to us (however, he has since passed away). It was a weird at first but the more I said it, the more I felt like it suited him. Dan was incredibly helpful to me – asking on occasion if I needed anything and handing me things / opening doors when my hands were full with the baby – & an absolute delight to Rylie. She loved hanging out with him!
He left the south to head back up to the good ol’ Northwest super early this morning (12.16.16 || we left our house at 1:45am). Overall, we had a great time having him and he was very gracious to willingly go along with our very busy lives. I’m so thankful for him and that our adult relationship can continue to grow.
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While Dan was here, he started a blog and wrote a couple posts about his stay. Here are the links if you’d like to read them ::