More than 16 years ago, just a week or two before Kim and I got married, I dropped my brother off at Ft. Knox in Kentucky for basic training. He was joining the army. He served for nearly ten years and during that time had tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and has lived in four different states.

Along the way, he’s had a few kids. Four to be exact. And while I’ve met three of them, the geographic distance has meant that most of our visits have been occasional video chats and phone calls, which I am admittedly not great at initiating. It’s been 5 years since I saw the older kids, when I got to visit them in Hawaii and help with one of the newborns.

But yesterday that all changed. As you can see in the homecoming picture below, we welcomed my brother, along with 4 nieces and nephews back to Tampa. There was excitement and happiness, as well as tears of joy on all sides. Throughout this year, the kids have gotten to know each other a little better on more consistent Zoom calls, but meeting in person for the first time is going to go down as the highlight of a lot of little people’s (and big people’s) year.

Abby and Maddy feel like their family has doubled in size. And they aren’t wrong, because in addition to my brother and his kids arriving, there was another addition to our extended family this week. My little sister had a beautiful baby girl, named Maggie Rose, who is so cute (and so tiny!).

Now it feels like we adults are way outnumbered by little ones. I picture them forming a motley gang like in The Goonies and patrolling neighborhoods by bicycle. Or maybe, more realistically, you’ll find this group of cousins (along with Maggie Rose when she is ready), with Abby and Maddy in the lead, teaching them how to dig pits in the backyard, climb all the trees, and of course how to relax in the pool. Big plans are already being made for a summer of Florida fun.