What's in a name?

What's in a name? This is not something I have given a lot of thought to in the past, but considering the activities of the last couple of months, it has been in the forefront of my mind.

I was born Carrie Grace Sharoff, grew up this way, graduated high school and college this way, got my PhD this way. I never thought I would change it, but once I met and married Chris McLean, I knew instantly that once we were married, I wanted to have the same last name as him (lucky for both of us he did not have a weird last name). Not really totally sure what to do about my body of scientific work,  I decided to keep Sharoff for science and McLean for everything else. . . we will see how this works out!

This past weekend, Chris and I traveled to Michigan for Chris's brother's wedding.

We had a great time bopping around MI, spending time in Ann Arbor and East-Lancing, and meeting/spending time with family. This weekend I got to really test-drive a ton of new names, and I loved them all!

I got introduced countless times as "Chris's wife". Loved it.

I got introduced as sister-in-law for the first time. Loved it. (crap, no photos of my new sister-in-laws, must do better photo journaling next time!)

Most notably though, I got to be called "Aunt Carrie" by my 5 new nieces/nephews. I particularly loved this one.

"Aunt Carrie, watch me jump in". Ok!

"Aunt Carrie, take my picture". Ok!    Call me Aunt Carrie, you get your way instantly!

"Aunt Carrie, take our picture with Uncle Chris".  Ok, twist my rubber arm.

I remember how much I coveted the attention of my Aunts and Uncles at those ages.   I am happy we were in the same position and able to spend some quality time with them.  I particularly loved when Toby asked me what I did for a living and I told him I was a scientist.  His next question was, "have you ever blown anything up?".  After a long pause I said "no", but I instantly realized there is still plenty of time for that!

We also got to met our nephew Count.  He is adorable and full of love.

We enjoyed taking Count for a run and wandering through the grass and trees.  We also introduced him to the playground.  Yes, we are crazy.

We had a fabulous long weekend.  We enjoyed great coffee, time with friends and family, and wonderful moist cool(ish) air.  Coming back to Arizona was hard.  Luckily we have wonderful animal to come home to.