Aunt Jean

My Aunt Jean is celebrating her 70th birthday this month. I would have to say she is the aunt my mom really grew up with. Their birthdays were only days apart and they got married on the same day, just different locations. I want to say Mom only went out with my Dad because Aunt Jean didn't want to go on a date alone. I wish I could confirm this story with my Mom, but that is the one I remember.
Growing up, we were at my Aunt Jean and Uncle Ray's house a lot. We rode horses, okay, everyone else rode and I was thrown and dragged by various horses and ponies. Uncle Ray in the summer could be counted on to take you to the lake every day when he got home. I remember buggy rides and an assortment of dogs that would sleep in our beds and leave God only knows what in the sheets. (C'mon, we gotta shake the sheets, I can't sleep in this sand pit!)
One time Mom and Jean loaded 7 kids into a station wagon and we went to the big slide at K-Mart and then we headed to Hubbard Hill Museum in Elkhart where I saw a lamb with another lamb growing out the side of it and I can still see us racing through the orchards. That day I think they stopped and used their last 35 cents to buy gas.
Growing up my cousins were like extended family. We raced through our lives with the same faces next to us when we were young and then as teenagers. And in the background were our Moms. They both had incredible senses of humor and both rooted for the underdogs, every time. I can still see them sitting at the kitchen tables in our houses and just talking and laughing. (Why is it always the kitchen table?)
They taught us patience, love, how to laugh, how to have fun and always how to remember. And I do remember.
There is not much better than a sister. (Yeah, Sally that is a shout out to you!)
Happy Birthday to my Aunt Jean who was one of the best sisters ever.