Cousins

As many people know, when my family goes to the beach it includes everyone on my mother's side of the family. This is my grandparents, my aunt and her family, and my uncle and his family. Thirty some odd years ago we started with two condos, but as the grandkids got married and had kids of their own, we had to expand. Now we occupy four condos one week every summer! Whereas many families get so large and schedules are so conflicting that a split occurs, our family has made it a priority to take off this one week of the year to enjoy each other's company. I really believe the time we spend together at the beach and the Sunday dinners we gather for once a month keep our family close and strong! One rule of going to the beach was that none of us brought a friend with us. This was strictly a family vacation and we all had a cousin our age to play with, except for Bailey (she's only 13), but she fits right in with us. Yes, friends might pop in for a day, and boyfriends/girlfriends might make an appearance, but the majority of the time was family time. Each "condo" takes a night to cook a meal for everyone and the other nights we go out to eat or order pizza. We have built so many memories at the beach from fishing on the pier, to late night games of Phase 10, shopping, beach games, and just good ole conversations. This year a rarity occurred. With so many of us going a million different ways, all of the cousins are very rarely in the same place at the same time. The last day of vacation, however, all of the cousins were down at the beach together at the same time! I took this opportunity to get a picture of this. Here are some pictures of us... we are posed in the order we were born! I love these pictures and I love my family!

From left to right: Lealane (32), Hannah (30), Cassie (27), Thomas (25), Quincy (24), Jessica (23), Sam (22), Hunter (22), and Bailey (13)! Wow!!