Cousins Week

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've got a legit excuse this time. My big sister Emily & her family came to stay with us so I was kicked outta my nice warm bed & onto the floor of my sisters room. So I usually write my blog at night but my sister's go to sleep a little earlier & I don't want to keep them up.

Anyway not that you needed to know all of that but whatev.

A lot...well kinda a lot has happened in the past few days. I'm not gonna go into detail but it involves a certain boy with the same last name as me and I am pretty darn happy about it. :)

BUT today is Independence Day so there is no time for details because this my friends in one of my favorite holidays! Why you ask? Weeelll for me it means family.

When I was little my Grandparents decided that they wanted all their grand kids to grow up together and know and love each other. So they came up with Cousins Week. Every summer around the 4th of July their four daughters would drive up to their 5 acre property in Northern California drop us grand kids and leave us there for a few weeks.

Let me tell you it was an amazing time! We would play in the "woods", build forts, do crafts for service, help cut down trees and swim at least 5 hours a day. It was a blast. And we were always there during the 4th of July. I remember a wide variety of things we used to do to celebrate. A few years we went to this big cliff and played up there & watched the fireworks from a distant park. Then we met "Uncle" Bob who lived near a park that had fireworks so we went to his house & played with there kids & watched from there lawn. Then we started going to the park itself where we'd dominate in every competition that they had so we could get sodas, hamburgers & hot dogs to stuff our faces with before we watched the fireworks explode right above us.

Though Cousins Week has officially stopped since we've all grown up  they are still some of my greatest memories. So tonight I want to dedicate this post to my Grandparents...who had the wisdom, love & courage to put up with us crazy kids each summer.

They taught me the importance of family & love. Which brings us to today. My whole family was together again today. For the first time in ages. It felt amazing! We all loved watching my niece Sadie get so excited for fireworks and I just loved being with those I love the most. I couldn't ask for a better way to celebrate. In a way it was very different from Cousins Week and I miss that tradition very much. But in a more important way it was exactly like Cousins Week; filled with love and laughter.

I hope you all enjoyed this day as much as I did.