The In-Laws

DAY 2

Congrats to fellow blogger and sister-in-law Andrea for joining the 365 Madness Tour. Already I am glad that she is aboard, I stole her idea for the "DAY XX" subtitle. Now I have no excuse for quitting. She wouldn't let me hear the end of it!

She is a perfect segway to my next subject. Since I exposed my family to the masses yesterday, it is time to expose my other family. THE IN-LAWS!

Actually they are not that bad. In fact I couldn't ask for better in-laws. I am so thankful that I have Kristy's parents for my in-laws. I hear horror stories from friends about not getting along with in-laws. Some of them cannot believe that I call my mother-in-law "mom" and not by Colleen (unless I am trying to get her attention!) I come from a family of two, so marrying into Kristy's family was a little bit intimidating. She has six brothers and sisters and a ton of extended family. Even after twelve years in the family, I am still having trouble keeping track of who is who. At least I got the brothers and sisters right but that was just a recent development. Kristy's family is a lot of fun and they can be loud and rowdy at times. I was not used to that but I soon found that I can be as rowdy as them. My first meetings were memorable.

Kristy's family is from West Jordan, Utah. About an hour and half south of where I was living. Kristy and I met at Utah State University and eventually married. Her family would come and visit and as the relationship got a little bit more serious I went down to visit them with Kristy.


Front left to right: Steven (the youngest), Milton (Dad), Colleen, (Mom), Aaron (2nd youngest)
Back left to right: Renae (3rd youngest), Sherry (my age; 3rd oldest), Eric (2nd oldest), Kristy (the one laughing as always; middle child trying to get attention), Lynn (oldest, they need to separate Lynn and Kristy, they spend too much time together!)

They first impressions are important. So what did I learn from these guys?

I met Renae first. She came up to help Kristy clean out her apartment with her roommates at college. I immediately liked her. She was a lot of fun but I should have seen the signs of how rowdy the family could be when only two of them are together. I am not sure if it was this visit or when Renae visited us a different time. But we were driving down this hill and the road split into two directions. Some kid was trying to cross the road on his bike. I yelled out "Lookout fatty!" (he was a little chunky) as I got closer and he freaked out and scrambled as hard as he could out of the way. Now I wasn't trying to run him over obviously but Renae has not forgotten that story. Hmmmm, maybe that was not the best first impression I could have made on Renae. Kristy's roommates were all cranky as well when we were helping them clean out their apartment which made Renae's presence even better. We made so many jokes and laughed about everything I thought for sure Kristy's roommates wanted to kill us. Renae eventually married when she got older to a guy named Gregg. They have two boys (Naythan and Zade) with another on the way.

The next person I met was Kristy's mom Colleen. Now I know where Kristy and Renae's sense of humor came from. She was very kind and very funny. I didn't get a chance to get to know her better until later on when I came down to West Jordan for a visit but I will cover that when I get to Steven. And just wait till I met Dad.

I soon went to visit Kristy in West Jordan to meet the rest of the crew. I was working for the Eastman Agency and taking some acting classes in Salt Lake City once a week so I had a good excuse to see her. Meeting her family was a lot of fun. They were all extremely nice. Steven was so young then, he was bouncing off the walls when suddenly Kristy's mom clotheslined him (like an actual wrestler!). Kristy and I had a double date with Aaron and Steven came along too. I thought it was strange that you would invite your little brother with you while on a date but now that seems so normal. This family is extremely close. Meeting Milton (Kristy's dad) was different. When I met him he extended his hand to shake it and I went on and spoke to him. Suddenly he turns and just leaves. I thought "What did I say?" He just left, at that moment I thought for sure I had struck out with the dad-in-law. All throughout the rest of the date and the whole two hour drive home I replayed that event over and over again. He's deaf and no one bothered to tell me about it. The reason he didn't talk back to me is because HE HAD NO IDEA I WAS SPEAKING! It took a couple of more visits for me to figure this out. Her family was great. It was fun meeting them all. I only had Eric and Lynn to meet next.

Steven is now married to Andrea and they have a cute little girl named Adalie. Aaron is also now married to a girl named Wendy (INSIDE JOKE). Actually her name is Heather and they are blessed to have three children. Rebecca-Lynn, Drake and newly born Emily. Sherry was already married to a scary guy named Jason and they had one little daughter that hated me named Cassie. Now they have two boys (Joseph and James) and another little girl named Kelly.

Lynn was next to meet. Lynn and her first husband Roger lived on the "Island", which is a cool suburb of Logan. Lynn had already graduated from college so you would think that she would be the mature one right? Nope. Both her and Roger had keen senses of humor. The first thing I learned about Lynn was that she could cook! Her homemade Turtle Brownies and homemade Peanut Butter Cups are to die for! Lynn and Roger lived up in Logan so it was nice to have some family here. The first time I met Roger he asked me if I was "the One". Roger sadly passed away years later due to Cystic Fibrosis. Lynn did remarry and had a child of her own. She married a great guy Darryl, who has 2 boys (Alec and Casey), Darryl has a unique story and a helping hand for everything. They have one girl named Jessica. They still live in Logan.

Eric was the last one to meet. All I remember about meeting Eric was when he teased Aaron of having a date that night. "You gonna take her swimming so you can see her in a swimsuit?" He kept asking that to Aaron. I didn't want to laugh out loud since I wanted to make a good impression but I thought that funny and I wanted to jump in. Eric had four children with Rachel. He has three boys (Josh, Scott, Ryan) and one girl (Breanna). Eric divorced and later remarried. He married a fun Halloween fan named Raelene who has three children of her own, one boy (Tristan) and two girls (Breanna, Danielle) They currently live in Wellsville, a small town about twelve miles away. Which is nice, I have a partner to play Madden with, we just don't get a chance to play much.

Now it has been twelve years since I have joined this family. I think I fit in. The best part is that I am not alone. I have an in-law support group to help handle the rowdy Breinholt clan! Like I said before, I am very fortunate to have this family as my in-laws. I really couldn't ask for anything better. Scratch that. It would have been nice if they were rich! Some of my fondest memories are with this crazy Breinholt Bunch. Nothing like watching scary movies together and fighting with oars, two blog columns coming up sometime.


Left to Right by appearance of their head:
Rebecca-Lynn, Aaron, Heather, Alec, Drake, Lynn, Darryl, Casey, Jessica, Tristan, Breanna B, Raelene, Ryan, Eric, Milton (Dad), Breanna, Colleen (Mom), Jason, Sherry, Yellie, Kelly, Cassie, James, (geez there are a lot of us), Me, Joey, Kristy, Steven, Logan, Adalie, (and we are missing Josh and Scott too!), Andrea, Naythan, Renae, Zade, Gregg, I hope I spelled them all right!