cousin time

Growing up I had a favorite cousin, Deana, whom I loved to visit.  Over the years we swapped many a silly letter as pen-pals.  Then of course as we grew up, got married and had families and jobs, and life kind of got in the way of anything more than the occasional 'what's up cuz?' email.  We really hadn't gotten together much as adults to just hang out and have fun--Grandma's funeral doesn't count.  *wink*

Enter Spring Break, 2011.  :)

As mentioned, we finally just did it, and planned a vacation around visiting friends and family other than Grandmas and Grandpas.  (We love you Grandmas and Grandpas of course, but it was fun to do something different!)

Our kids were still trying to put together exactly how we were all related--are they all 2nd or 3rd cousins to one another?  And when exactly does the once/twice-removed enter into the equation?  In the end, Deana became Aunt Deana and the kids all just collectively became cousins.  'Nuff said.

Luckily, this happened to be a birthday celebration for two of her immediate familysibs, so I got to see the rest of my cousins, and aunt and uncle and all the new itty bitties to join the family in the past several years.  Dan was in heaven as the sports talk started. . .and pretty much didn't stop for about four hours.  Hard to believe I come from the same gene pool.

It was so fun to catch up!

 

Cameron and Calder.

 

My cousins Dani and Cory and then my cousin-in-law Gary.  :)  Who helped me keep the time clock  regarding conversations consistently swinging back to BYU football.

 

There's my cuz makin' the birthday cake!  ('what's up, cuz?')

 

Probably the best most natural smile I got on film from Cameron all week.

 

Present time and some inside jokes.

 

And then back to football.

 

First off mostly little kids and then as the afternoon progressed, mostly big kids.

 

 

 

Probably Cameron's 3rd. . . 4th? pair of pants while on vacation already.

 

When the sun went down I was freezing and this little native was running around without socks on.

 

 

Again, right outside their window.  Gorgeous!

 

Yes please!  I guess a family favorite--cake made with no eggs.  And it was so good.  I may have had 3 pieces.

 

Lots of this going on with my Uncle Dave as we swapped camera talk.

 

My youngest (and newly married) cousin Kyle.

 

This kid was such a ham.  He really cracked me up.  Totally posed for this picture.

 

There it is, the self-shot!

 These two were seriously two peas in a pod.  They could have been brothers, instead of 3rd cousins-twice-removed--whatever.  They put on a little show for us and I was cracking up.

I show you this just to demonstrate how open and out of their shells and silly they were being, and how much fun they had.  They were quoting the "Despicable Me" movie ver batim all night long.

It was nice to hang out with you Davis clan!