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Most family vacations don’t involve the southernmost island in the world and some penguins. However, for Michael and Melissa DiGioia their vacation did.

My cousin Michael has been up to some pretty interesting stuff since I last saw him at his wedding in June of 2005. This included hiking through Argentina, climbing glaciers in the Andes Mountains and stopping as close to Antarctica as possible without actually being there, during a two week trip in the end of October and beginning of November 2006.

Michael and his family moved from Broomall, Pa. to Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1991 when he was 14. I lived nearby and was only five-years-old at the time. He eventually went to Penn State University and upon graduation moved with Melissa, then his girlfriend, to Washington. They settled in a Seattle suburb called Bothell.

Currently employed by Prima Blue Cross as their Member Communications Manager, he has worked in corporate communications since moving to the West Coast. Michael, 30, helps Prima members learn how to use their health insurance wisely.

Recently, on his time off from work, he went snowboarding with his Melissa, now his wife. Unlike the conditions in Pennsylvania, there is a 150-inch base in the mountains outside of Seattle due to snow storms in December and January. Michael said that the conditions are better then those in Colorado and Utah.

In his spare time Michael also plays Ultimate Frisbee. He sits on the board of directors of the Northwestern Ultimate Frisbee Association. This association includes all of Washington State and is comprised of 11 board members and two employees. It coordinates an adult and youth league and boasts the largest co-ed league in the country. Altogether NUFA has over 1500 participants. Melissa is a member and Michael said her Frisbee skills are better then his.

My cousin’s more daily routine includes working on his house and training for triathlons. The last one he competed in was in September. His goal is to enter another after June. This involves training seven days a week since there are three different activities, running, swimming and biking. Each vary so much, that Michael is constantly trying to stay in shape for each he said.

With such a hectic schedule he enjoys the limited time he gets to spend with family. Over Christmas Michael went to visit his parents and five siblings in Pittsburgh. In August, they all went together to visit their one sister, Jennifer, in Las Vegas. He also must make time for Melissa’s parents who now reside in Phoenix, Ariz., though originally from Cleveland, Ohio. They moved to get away from the cold weather.

Whatever the reasons that people have for moving, there is always something to bring them back together: family. After all, that’s what allowed Michael and me to talk after over a year-and-a-half. We’re family.

- Selina Poiesz