Tucker's family has the unique characteristic of being a "combined family". 20 years ago, Jeannine and Neal found each other and made the life-changing decision to mesh their two families. Jeannine had two young adult children (Jeff and Lynda Ann) at the time, and Neal had five at home...Tucker was 17 and Derek (the youngest) was only 8.
Now, 20 years later (and a LOT of hard work later)...there is hardly a trace of that difficult transition. If you peeked into our family gatherings, you'd see a lot of love and laughs...with no divisions. But it's taken effort on everyone's parts to create that.
One of my most favorite things Jeannine says when asked by people how "her" children are doing (referring to her original two, Jeff and Lynda Ann), she often says "Gosh, it's been so long I can hardly remember whose kids are whose anymore!".
That being said...of the seven children, two are seldom at family gatherings/holidays. Derek lives in China...and has for nearly 5 years. And Spencer lives in Colorado, and until this past weekend, hadn't been back in Utah with all of his siblings for nearly 10 years!
He drove to Salt Lake with his little 9 year old boy, Walker. It was my children's first time meeting Spencer and Walker. Walker is such a sweet and friendly little boy. He was happy to realize he wasn't a lone redhead! And Derek was able to fly through Salt Lake from China on a layover to a USA diving job he was heading to.
We snapped a few pictures of the original five Maxfield children, on this rare occasion. It is amazing how different children from the same family can be! As grown adults, they have all chosen very different occupations and have very different talents. It was special for them to share a few hours together again.
Order of age...Tucker, Maren, Spencer, Lyndsy and Derek
Cousins: Peyton, Lexi, Brock, Jordyn, Taylor, Boston, Walker, Jaden and River
1 comment:
that was fun to read and see pics of. I haven't ever seen all of the siblings. They ARE all uniquely different! How fun for them!!
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