Words from a wallflower

Two weekends ago, my family met up in Vegas to celebrate my stepdad’s birthday. It sounds like such a cliché that we spent a weekend in Vegas, but trust me, it didn’t consist of the normal tourist attractions, considering that my stepbrother and I are under 21. We probably had one of the most laid back weekends as visitors of Vegas.

Even though we were there for less than 48 hours, I was happy we were all there. The last time my mom, stepdad, and stepbrother spent time together was at the end of July in Washington. My stepbrother had to go back to Vegas for band practice, and I had to come back to Denver for work, leaving my mom and stepdad at their new home.

When we lived in Vegas, like any family, we all got caught up in our own everyday things, passing each other at the dinner table and trying to find time on the weekends to do something we would all enjoy. Oftentimes I miss those small moments.

All three of them picked me up at the airport late on Thursday night, and it wasn’t long before we were all laughing over friendly banter. The thing about my family is that you never want to make even the slightest mistake because you will never live it down. I don’t mean this in a bad way. We just like teasing each other, and as a result, we have learned to laugh at ourselves.

So instead of finding time like we normally did to talk at the dinner table, we found time in a rental car at an In-N-Out drive-thru. My stepdad tried to pry the details out of all of us about his birthday weekend surprise while my stepbrother talked about his classmates in band. My mom shared the latest drama at work, and I caught them up on my life in Denver. They were simple conversations, but we were all in one spot again to actually tell them in person. That was a good feeling.

Although our dinner table shifts with us all being in different places, I’m grateful when we find it.