There's a really annoying, extremely cheesy greeting card-esque saying about cousins being childhood playmates who grow up to be "forever friends."
Yeah. Don't say I didn't warn you about the inherent cheesiness.
Anyway. I have a gazillion cousins, about a half-dozen who are right around the same ages as my brother and sister and I, and so growing up we always had built-in choices for slumber parties and birthday parties and zoo trips and museum trips and beach trips and camping trips...it was great. I remember one weekend that stands out from many where my brother and our cousin and I barely left my brother's room because we had built this elaborate, all-encompassing compound for our GI Joes. I mean, there was a landing strip and airfield for the F-14, and the headquarters complete with jail, and a barracks, and a mess hall...seriously. We were...obsessed dedicated.
(I think that was also around the time we would go on long reconnaissance missions through our neighborhood decked out in either dark clothes if it was dark or camo it it was day, our faces smeared with the army greasepaint our uncle had given us.)
But I've always been really thankful that we all got to grow up in such close proximity, and, for the most part, we're all still really close today.
That closeness and tradition has passed on to the next generation. With Kailin and Emily, and Sarah and Elizabeth's little sister, Kate, and their niece, Belyn, and Andrea's niece and nephews, there are seven kids between the ages of three and eight. They are always together at birthday parties and pool days and they've all got zoo and Sea World family passes, so they're frequently there as well.
I'm really glad Kailin and Emily get to experience what we did growing up, and I hope it continues as they get older.
Here's two of my favorite pictures from their zoo trip on Wednesday:
Rough July 4th for kitty
Captain Billy's in SoMD
One of our neighbors here at the lake, K, is a single dad with a 3 yr old daughter. We noticed him pull in last night and my jaw almost dropped to the floor when I saw my BFF from high school, D, get out the passenger side. She actually lived in our town until last year when she moved back home. She's a single mom of 2 boys. They're both good people and I think could make a nice couple. I guess they've been dating since January. I hope it works out and its so fun to have a friend close! D and K's daughter came over to watch us do some of our fireworks last night. K's daughter just turned 3 and Lily was having fun taking care of her.
How are you celebrating the 4th of July?
See this post and this post - not what we expected but it's OK! :)
If this hadn't happened, we would definitely be hanging with family eating a delicious meal. James is a bit young for fireworks this year so it would have been an early night. And that's totally OK. I'm all for low-key holidays!
If you could do anything you want tomorrow, what would it be?
Submitted by Becca-Pink.
Sign a full-price-offered contract on our house!
(A girl can dream, eh?)
