cousins

The creatures pictured to the left are my nieces and nephews. As it is in the animal kingdom, each has distinct behaviors and personalities. They are fun kids who generally keep each other entertained, and make the rest of us laugh. I think extended family relationships are important, and help to shape our experience in the world. I hope the memories they are making as cousins are as fond as the ones I made as a youth.

Recently my sisters and I were reminiscing about the fun, crazy, traumatic and always memorable experiences spent with our own cousins growing up. We traveled in masse, usually stuffed in layers into the Nelson's red 70's VW bus (seatbelts...what were seatbelts?), and spent so much time together, it was as though we were a polygamist family.

There were trips to Lagoon with homemade picnic lunches, returning home late at night "all-day" stamped and sunburned; camp-outs in the trailer on the Coltman farm in Idaho, which always smelled of burnt popcorn and asparagus; standing in line for "Star Wars" again, and again and again; road-trips to California beaches via the Nevada ranch, where we stopped for Aunt Nelda's oatmeal and horseback rides; swimming lessons, tennis lessons, fishing trips and sleep-overs on the round trampoline; and outings to the zoo, all stinky and sticky. We played every card game, board game, and version of tag imaginable–and made up many so games of our own. We established club houses, published our own newsletter and played the name game for hours. Hawaii was a thrill, even if only seen from under the dashboard; and the field trip to the slaughterhouse made us all vegetarians for awhile–(Did Uncle Varr forget that we were city kids? Or...kids?)

Thank you Nelson family for a memorable childhood. Although my pictures of those days were lost in the fire, the memories are still intact. God bless cousins.