We are Family

When I was growing up, we spent every other weekend and many major holidays at my grandparents' farm. Grandma and Grandpa had five kids (one of whom is my father) and 13 grandkids. Eight of us were close in age. In fact, 6 of us are separated by 6 years, with approximately a year between us. My cousins (Rob, Scott, Chris, Deanise, Nicki and Vicki) were also frequently at the farm. As a result, I have many fond memories of weekends spent with my cousins. We pretty much had free run of the farm. I can remember mud fights, rides on the tractor, hours spent playing in the barn, and terrorizing the resident wild animals with our BB guns. I don't think anything was ever wounded (except for Scott), but we sure shot at a lot of things.

However, since Grandma passed away in 2000, I have seen my family less and less. In fact, I haven't seen some of my cousins since before Andrew was born. I have been harassing various people about having a family reunion for quite awhile but with no success. Well, I managed to get them all in the same room at the same time after my brother's wedding and insisted that we needed a get together. The combined authority of Aunt JoAnn and Aunt Patsy was too much and we picked a day for a family reunion. It just so happened to be this past Saturday.

So on Saturday, we all trekked down to the farm. Now, in case you don't live in Texas, we had quite a bit of rain this past weekend. In fact, they got over 7 inches at the farm between Friday morning and Saturday morning. It was incredibly muddy down home. We had a great time.

As is required at all family reunions, there was more food than we could possibly eat. The kids crawled all over the hay in the barn. Scott, Chris and I discussed the merits of square bales over round bales (square bales are much more movable and perfect for building forts). I got to talk to all of my cousins and see their kids (2 of whom I was meeting for the first time). There were rides on the gator and four-wheeler and, once the soon came out, a hay ride. There was also playing in the mud.

I have often been saddened by the fact that Andrew's cousins live in Ann Arbor and that he will not have the wonderful memories of family that I have. But for a brief time this weekend, Andrew got to experience some of my childhood memories (including being helped up the hay by his second cousin Brian while Brian refused to help his own brother Matthew--boy does that sound familiar).

Everything at the family reunion may have been coated in mud and slightly damp, but it was absolutely perfect.