I had a few photos from some fun stuff that we did, and I never blogged about. As I was looking them over, I realized that they fit into a theme and decided to make one post out of the theme: COUSINS.
Growing up, I had as many siblings as I had first cousins (6), and they lived far away, and we didn't see them that often. The memories I do have with my cousins are happy ones. There just aren't very many, and the distance and differences in our families were such that prevented very close relationships. I longed for happy times with lots of cousins, and would often think about the day when my children would have lots of cousins. I knew it would happen. I have 6 siblings, after all, and everyone talked about growing up and having large families. Also, we were close as siblings growing up, so I knew we would stay close as adults and therefore our children would know each other well.
My children have 34 (almost 35) first cousins, and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. They find some of their very best friends in their cousins. And although we are not geographically any closer to them as I was to my cousins growing up, the relationships are already different. Technology helps too. My children email their cousins,
IM their cousins and keep in touch through
MyFamily.com. It makes me so happy to see them excited to spend time with their cousins. I imagine them continuing these relationships. Perhaps one or more of my children will room with a cousin in college, or at least be at the same college at the same time. I can see them staying in touch into their adulthood, and forming bonds with 2
nd cousins as well. This bond of family is something magical.
Here are my kids with a few of their "Wisconsin cousins". We were able to spend Labor Day weekend at Andy and
Alesha's and loved the time with them and their land.
Summertime fun with the
Taylors. It's always a great time when we get together with them.
The Taylor and
Jeffs girls at the Peoria Zoo.
Taylor and
Jeffs boys (minus
Dallin, not sure why) at the Peoria Zoo.
This photo I did already share on the blog, but wanted to include one of my kids with their cousins from Dad's side. It's a little different with this bunch, since my kids are so much older, but the love and fun are still just as abundant. My kids love the chance to be the "big" cousins. I hope my children can be great examples and mentors (pardon the buzzword use) as well as friends to these cousins throughout their lives.
I just had to include this photo since little Addy was left out of the other one (actually Sam was too, but his family was represented). I didn't get anywhere near all of the Thompson family cousins, but a sprinkling of them made it onto the post.
Ah, the joy of spending time with cousins. It's even wonderful experiencing it through the next generation.
Last Friday Rick was in a race!! He went as one of the Caterpillar participants in the EServe race to benefit Junior Achievement. I thought it was lots of fun to go and watch him race. Daniel was at Preschool, so I went by myself. It felt like we were young kids. Me, going to watch him in a race. It was fun, and I thought maybe some of you would like to see the photos I got. 
