Guess Who Came For Dinner

We had some company last night for dinner:

Cousins Bryce and Garett came over after they golfed with The boy and Genius Golfer yesterday afternoon.  These boys crack me up--and they crack each other up, as you can tell.

Collecting Cousins

Last Saturday, The Boy had a chance to make a little cousin's day--his birthday, in fact.  Our super cute cousin Haight turned eight on the 16th and his mom--my cousin Melanie--asked Haight what he wanted to do to celebrate his birthday.  She expected him to say a party with his buddies.  Nope.  He said that he wanted to go to this local indoor trampoline park with The Boy!  That was his wish.

How could The Boy turn down the chance to be a rock start to his little cousin?!?  Of course, he went and jumped with the kiddos for an hour.  And though he was exhausted when he was done, I think he had a great time.  Oh, and so did the kids!

Cousins of Summer

Holy cow!  Yesterday happened so fast!  I missed a post.

The weekend of July 4th we had a special family get together to celebrate Father's Day with our Grandpa Herb.  Since he and Grandmama divorced several years ago we plan to do his birthday and Father's Day with him in the "off season" so he can spend those actual dates with his girls. But he is still Grandpa to our kids, so we try to keep up with all this recognitions and celebrations we can and include him in our family events too.

Maddix was here to celebrate with Grandpa Herb, as his mommy and daddy were at the hsspital with new born Baby Aaron.  Maddix "helped" unwrap a few presents for Grandpa Herb.

He is a cute, funny kid--but has so much energy...he made me tired just watching him that day.

Meanwhile, the girl cousins (and Auntie Brenda) were vegging out on the couch, enjoying that the boys were all downstairs.

Nice face, McKay!

We love our cousins--and I'm so grateful my kids and their cousins love each other.  It isn't always like that.  And I know what a blessing it can be.

Cousins Camp

Earlier this week, two of our darling nephews came to hang out and spend the night with The Boy.  The Girl has been at Girls' Camp this week, so it was a great chance for the boys to get together.  They have been trying to have a cousins' camp out for weeks--and their work schedules haven't meshed, until this week.

Garett and Taylor both graduated from HS this year, with The Girl, so they are slightly older than The Boy, but they are great together!  The three of them caught up with each other after The Boy got of his shift at the pool at 8 PM.  They drove over to the Macey's for treats and beverages!  Genius Golfer and the Cousins Trio went to a local Nickel-cade to play arcade games for a couple of hours--which then love because they come home with sorts of silly "prizes".

Then they came back here and hung out and talked for a while and then broke out the computers, laptops, and any other electronic device they could and links everyone together to play a game on the network called League of Legends. They play over the internet together quite often when they can't get tog ether physically.  But this is more fun, I suspect, when they are in the same house together.  It sounds like Genius Golfer got in on it too.

I have no idea how late they were up playing, because I had to go to bed so I could work in the morning.  But they were incredibly respectful and let me go to sleep while they played in the family room, my office and the basement--I never even heard them!

When I got up for work the next morning, this is what I discovered in our family room:

 

It isn't quite wall to wall boys, but they were definitely all sprawled out across the two couches, and The Boy was all over the floor.   Garett was sleeping with his face pointed straight up and when his head was on the arm rest of the couch he almost looked dead--he was so still and quiet.  As I scuttled around to get ready to leave for work, they stirred a little but not much.  When I got home from work, and The Boy got home from the pool that night, he said they didn't all get up until almost lunch time.

I love that they love each other and enjoy doing things together!  Just wish they didn't all grow up so dang fast.  Taylor will be leaving for a mission to Mexico City next month and Garett will get a call to serve once his knee surgery is done and he is healed up.  I do love that they are good examples to each other and encourage one another to do what they have been taught--while having fun at the same time!

Family Ties

Last evening we had one of our monthly family dinners at Grandamcita's home.  This one was for my BIL, who turned 50 last week.  We have a dinner about once a month, as each of Genius Golfer's siblings, and their respective spouses have birthdays in differing months.  So it is generally 4 of GG's sibs, 3 spouses, and whatever kid-cousins show up.

The last time we got together it was The Boy's turn to pray in our family prayer that night.  In his prayers he told God that he was thankful for his cousins and that they loved each other and got along so well.

I was touched to hear that kind of sentiment form him, but my heart broke at the same time.  I love that the kids love their cousins--and they really do!  Now that they are old enough to drive, they find ways to get together, with or without the parents.  What is heartbreaking is that my two nephews have become estranged to my own kids.  The boys don't know my kids and my kids don't know the boys anymore.

When they were all little my sister and I would try to do something with the kids all together monthly or so, and more in the summer.  We wanted them to know each other as we never knew most of our own cousins.  We had three close by as we grew up and we certainly loved them, but we had more that lived states away and we never got to know, and consequently might not even recognize if we saw them on the street.

My sisters boys and my kids began to drift away as a result of her divorce.  There were time issues and visitations.  There was some kind of drama, to this day we don't know the story, that the older one in particular was told by the other side of his family to keep him from wanting to be with us.  My kids experienced a loss that no kid should have to feel--and that was nothing compared to the strife the boys were experiencing.  But my kids didn't understand what their cousins were going through, and there was little we could really tell them to help.

Now, I think most of the strife for the boys is settling down, but know their parents have both remarried and there are blended families to settle into.  Add to that the schedules of busy teenagers and family activities and work schedules and church and...well, you can see that there is little time left to reestablish relationships with their cousins from that side of the family.

So while I my heart hurts for the broken relationships with my own nephews my kids are missing out on, I rejoice that they do have cousins that they know and love and want to be with any chance they get.  And I hope that the time will come with repairs and reacquaintances can be made.

...It Bwings Us Togethwew Today

We hosted an Easter Weekend Girl Cousins Campout here last night. We had The Girl and two girl cousins Miss H (age 6) and Miss M (age 10). The Boy camped out at Gramama's with the boy cousins. So far so good.

I love that these kids enjoy each other so much. There are 10 cousins on Genius Golfer's side of the family and they are fantastic kids. They all live within a hour of each other and of Gramama's so we get together quite a bit. They love it when we do. They start asking for reasons to do something as a family just so they can see each other and play together.

As a girl I knew 3 cousins--Tim, Mel, and Abby. I know I had a lot more than that, but they were two states away and really didn't share a lot in common with us. The 3 cousins we knew and did things with were the only other members of the Church, so that helped in the togetherness goal.

Like GG's family of cousins, our 3 cousins were there for baptisms and any big event. We shared Christmas and Thanksgiving with them. Then when I went to college my aunt and uncle divorced and it changed up the dynamic of the cousins a bit. We still liked getting together, but now it wasn't quite as convenient or simple.

I love that our kids have 8 other cousins to play with and feel at home with no matter where they are. Two of those 8 are married now, so they are a little less in the overall cousins' picture--as they should be. The rest of the 6 are slightly older and slightly younger so my kids fit right in the mix.

Today's plan includes a "girls' day out" to see BYU's Ballroom Dance team perform with Gramama and Aunti B, then the girls will meet up with the boys at Gramama's for an annual event: the Easter Egg hunt.

A perfect way to spend the day with family.

Surf's Up!

Two weeks ago this is what we were doing. It is a place called FlowRider in the Salomon Center in downtown Ogden. Wild place. My sister and her two boys "gave" this experience to my kids for their Christmas gifts, and on New Year's Eve day we went up with them to play.

The top photo is The Girl on her boogie board. She seemed to like it the least of all the kids, but she did get slammed pretty hard at the top of the wave. She got a nasty scrape on her lower back--we told her to call it a Shark Bite.

The Boy boogie boarded at first then thought he would try the surf board. He did great! At first they let you hold on to a rope--like wake boarding--but even then he usually had a lot of slack in the rope, so he got the balance issues figured out pretty fast. The FlowRider employee that was helping The Boy told us he was a "natural". I think it is all the snowboarding that helped him. Same balance and basic positioning.

I'm sure it was a pricey day of fun, but the kids had a great time and enjoyed being with their cousins. I liked it for the memories of the beach and the sun and the summer, and all that goes with that--while this morning we are at 9 degrees again and snow is still all over the ground. But I digress....

Pack of Pranksters

Saturday evening Travis and Lacey's wedding reception was held here in our town at her grandparents' home. It was lovely and the newlyweds looks radiant, of course. The groom's mother and father were exhausted, but poised. And overall everything was as it should be.

Then the cousins--aged 5 up to 21--all got into the wedding spirit and did their part...to the CAR! They filled it with balloons, wrapped it in toilet paper and saran wrap and polka dotted Oreo cookies on the windows. With squeals of delight and mischievous fun they spent easily 30 minutes decorating the car for the nuptial getaway.

Only people who love you will do stuff like that. I just hope someone tells that part to Travis!