Cousins

Hey, did everyone have as much fun over Memorial Day as I did? I got to see my cousins. I hadn't seen most of them since last Memorial Day, and that was very briefly. It was great fun getting our kids together and remembering the fun we had growing up. It was a high time of cotton wood trees blowing until it looked like snow, ticks, and mosquitoes! Just kidding...We had a great time.

We went to a municipal park near the town where Studmuffin grew up for Memorial Day. It's a beautiful park with camping, a natural spring fed pond for the kids to fish in, golf for the adults, and nature hikes! My girls had great fun spending time with their cousins (my cousins kids.) And, anyone who is wondering who the cutie in the orange stripe shirt is, she's my Aunt Christina's niece. But, she's a cousin as far as everyone here was concerned!

Sadly, my sister Paula was unable to come, so this handsome little guy was totally outnumbered. It was slightly improved when my cousin Dusty arrived with his little guy. However, he doesn't seem to disturbed to be surrounded by a gaggle of girls does he? He is truly one of the most beautiful kids I've ever seen. He will definitely be a heart breaker.

Now, this group was trouble. It was great seeing the old gang together again. We all grew up together (obviously, since we're cousins. Duh) We used to spend so much time together in the summer. I remember I thought my Aunt Christina was the most patient woman alive, and that she never lost her temper. Actually, I still think that. When we would all get together at my grandparents, we ran around like wild Indians. I got tickled at my Grandma Dolly this weekend. She kept scolding us that we weren't watching our kids closely enough. We ran all over the place growing up, and certainly no grown up was keeping an eye on us! One time my cousin Matt was showing us the dangers of a spring trap. He took a stick, just like Grandad Pat showed him, and sprung the trap to show us how tightly it could snap and break the stick. Unfortunately, he chose a short stick. The trap sprung...Right onto his hand. We had to run find an adult for that one. None of us were strong enough to get it off. Woops. Another time we found a machete, who knows where, and we were cutting down some small saplings or something to build forts. We got caught, and our fun was ended before anyone lost a finger. Then one time we were walking to the cliffs north of my parents house and my cousin Ben came to an abrupt halt. There was a rattle snake coiled on the ground right in front of him. He was afraid to move because he thought it would strike. We finally convinced him to move and we ran the whole way home to get my dad, who came and killed the snake. Do you see a pattern here? We ran off, no adults present, got into trouble, ran to an adult for rescue...Okay, so maybe Grandma was right to fret!

We also got to spend time with Studmuffin's family. We get to see this gang a little more often. The little princess in pink told me she had a new butterfly swimsuit and Tinkerbell flip flops, so she is ready to come see me and swim in my pool. As a matter of fact, they will all get to join us doing that very thing next week! Do you know how hard it is to get 6 kids to look at the camera and get a decent picture when there's 4 dogs running around, and the sun is in Bookworm's eyes, and they suddenly have 12 conversations that they must have that very minute? And that letter "L" cap just brings a tear to my eye. That is a cap from my home town, home of the Tigers. My nephew is playing ball there this summer even though he is from the rival town (yep Studmuffin and I grew up in rival towns.) Of course, he's still wearing OSU clothing, but someday I'll convince him he should cheer for the Sooners, if for no other reason than Crimson is way prettier than orange! And for those of you who don't realize, yes, my number one method for choosing a team must first revolve around colors. Hey, I just can't cheer for a team that isn't complimentary to my skin tone! We were sadly missing several cousins for this snapshot too. My in laws have 20 grand kids... But since we're scattered all over it's hard to get home at the same time.

Well, that's all the ramblings I have for you today! Have a great day!

Hey! I was just looking at the top picture and had a flashback! There was this group camping next to my family, and the man kept teasing the kids about bears and lions in the trees. It was late, and the kids kept running screaming through their camp ground. You'd think some responsible adult would have stopped them, but we were sadly lacking in those that day. Anyway, one of the little ones ran up and said, "Hey! That nice man that's been teasing us about bears and lions just gave us candy!" A nice man just gave my kids candy....Isn't that sort of opposite of what you want to hear come out of a kids mouth? Of course, he was a nice man, and he was just being nice, but considering we had also had the little ones playing on a homemade slip and slide made out of a sprinkler and a blue tarp, and they were running around in t-shirts and underwear...very little could phase any of us at that point. My cousin Matt pulled up, saw that we had his kid running around in a sprinkler in his underwear, and said, "So, I guess it's okay for an 8 year old boy to run around in his underwear at a public park now." Hey, they are just kids...let'em have fun!