Second Cousins

I'm a huge fan of cousins. I grew up adoring the time spent with the girls about my age--Sharlene, Shera, and Jana combined with me and my two sisters, Monica and Tanya. We met up at least once a month at Grandma and Grandpa's house where we had a "maxi-family" home evening together. It was a family night with all of our local cousins, and those evenings spent together are some of my favorite memories. I have 78 first cousins on that side of the family, and while the numbers can be overwhelming, I can tell you a little bit about each one of them. I love cousins. They are fast friends, and somehow there's a bond with them. I wish I could always live near cousins, and I really hope that someday my children know and love their cousins like I loved mine. While Grandpa kept track of the numbers, Grandma never made us feel like a number. She loved each of us individually, and took interest in the details of our lives. I think her closeness to us helped us want to be close to each other.

Straight off my mission, I found a second cousin who had also just returned from a mission. We ended up rooming together, and she was a tremendous blessing to me in my post-college years. 

Then I ended up moving to Washington, DC and I lived downstairs (11 floors down) from a pair of second cousins, Joseph and Joseph. They were absolute saints, and became dear friends forever. During that time, I also got to interact with a number of second cousins. For some reason, I didn't have any first cousins around, but our very extended family has kept in touch well enough that we find each other in spite of that "second" part. I enjoyed time with Krista, IvaLou, Jenet, Esther, and LaDawn to name a few. When my first cousins weren't nearby, I found a lot of commonalities with the second cousins that lived in the East.

So you can imagine that after I had lived in Alaska for 5 years, I was more than elated to find out that I had a second cousin in town. Even better that she and her husband eventually moved to our ward, and that David's favorite person in the whole world was her oldest son.

The Westons have now moved to Wasilla--an hour away--but while they were moving we got the kids for an evening of pizza and movies so the parents could focus on the move. This was also the night we introduced their kids to our creek on our property, so I hope they come back again to splash a little more with the warmer weather. A creek is not nearly as fun when its buried in snow--so come back soon to play, Westons!

The baby on David's lap is 10-month old Paxtynn. We've watched her on and off, and when she's over we feel like we have twins, since she's only 2 months older than Alina. She has really attached herself to David, and I'm glad to see that David was taking good care of her in spite of his interest in the movie. Hidden behind him is Tyler with his sister on his lap, so I think Tyler's example showed David how to include the littlest crowd in the fun.

 When I have a cousin only an hour away from me, I'll make it a point to take my kids to visit. 

Love you, Linds! Can't wait to see that gorgeous new home.

Oh, as a side note--I recently was with Lindsay's Grandma, while she was talking to my Grandpa. Grandma Andersen said, "I bet you don't have as many grandkids as me." To which Grandpa Ray replied, "We go for quality, not quantity!" The man has 88 grandkids--but Grandma Shirley has 102. Like I said, the numbers can be staggering--but the relationships shrink the overwhelming feeling of it.