Cousin Fun

We had a great time in Utah seeing you. The kids talk about you all the time. Yesterday we were reading the ABC picture book that Mindurs and Nerseyfers made us. Superkid saw a picture of Uncle B and said, "Uncle Brian, I love him! His Mommy's name is Grandma!" When we look at the pics we took on the trip the kids race to yell out everyone's name. The biggest regret we have living out here is that the kiddies don't get to know the family as well as they should.

I remember going up to Grandma's house on Sunday nights for cheese toast and starlight mint ice cream. All of the cousins my age and I would beg to spend the night at Grandma's. We usually got our way. We wore Uncle Richard's huge T-shirts as nightgowns and Grandma would let us sleep in her big bed altogether, while she took the smaller bed in the blue room. She would tell us the Mary Fielding crossing the plains story (and always make the point that Mary beat that rude captain into the valley -you go girl!) or the story of her dog Bongo (literary privilege on the dog's name) pushing her into the river. There was one memorable night in that big bed that I had a broken leg (and a BIG cast). Which also meant that I was relegated to sleeping on the edge. That didn't keep me from getting a good night's sleep. Unfortunately at everyone else's expense. I never lived that down among those who shared the bed with me that night. In the morning we would usually have cold cereal for breakfast, but not until we had a full glass of orange juice. I never understood why it was such a task for Heather to finish a glass of delicious juice. I had no problem gulping mine down. But the most fun was playing with the laundry shoot. We dropped all kinds of junk down that thing. I can even remember trying to convince younger cousins to take a ride down the shoot. Finding snails in Grandma's front yard was also a good time. We would see who could make the biggest stack of snails or race the snails to see who was fastest. Not to mention how much fun it was to throw snails at passing cars, at least until one time a driver stopped and ratted us out to Grandma. I used to think that only rich people had snails, because Grandma had so many and I never saw any at our house!

These are the things that I hope for my kids to experience with their cousins. We are just happy to get out there as often as we can. I will never forget how much fun Abizella and Ashy had together this time around!