The Summer of Cousinly love

Summer is here.
Swimming, grilling, and family reunions.

Around our area the temps have been in the 90s for awhile. We had a few cooling off days and now the sun is back on full force. In times like these it's nice to have friends with a pool. A couple of Sundays ago, I woke the Mr from his Sunday nap and said get your swim shorts on, we're going! And we had a very enjoyable, laughter-filled afternoon of swimming and Marco Polo.

This past weekend we didn't have a pool, but we had a lot of fun. My niece and nephew, whom we don't get to see often ... I think it may have been 7 years since they were here ... came and stayed with us. We really enjoyed getting to know them again as adults. And my kids loved hanging out with their cousins. We also had a family reunion combined with a 60th Anniversary party for my aunt and uncle. There were so many people there - many I didn't know, even though I recognized their last name.

But first, we started the weekend on Saturday morning with a 5k run/walk with some of my family members. My brothers, sister, in-laws, nieces, and future in-laws, along with my little family, met at a local park for a 'fun run'. Prize money was dangled as an incentive, and my sister-in-law started us off. Now that I am actually training for something - a half-marathon in Sept - I was excited about my run, since I only walked once. At this point, for me, it was a win, even though I came in 5th. The two young guys - my Boy and his cousin - paced each other at 1st and 2nd the entire way. As they got close to the end, my Boy sped up and left the cousin in the dust. There is a streak of competitiveness in all of us. My youngest did not want to get passed by anyone, so she convinced Dad, who was walking with her, to turn around at certain spots so as to keep ahead of the others.

Some of the crew headed on up to the parade that the little town north of us was having; some of us went home and cleaned up. We headed to another aunt and uncle's home for lunch and anniversary celebration. The girls entered their cakes in the annual dessert contest. Even though they didn't win, we still had fun making them, and eating them!

Our party continued on Sunday after church when we headed down to my niece's new home south of us. We definitely saw God's hand on us after we arrived. On the way down the car was shaking a bit, kind of like it was out of alignment. I was driving, and the further I went and if I went faster, the shaking became worse. When we finally pulled off of the freeway, we felt a little wobble in the steering, almost like the tire was going to come off. We made it to the house, and the Mr jacked up the tire and checked it out. We were fortunate to have a spare in the trunk because our tire was no longer able to be used without serious consequences. Good thing I didn't know that as I was driving! The belts in the tire were separating, and it could've blown any time.
 Now it's Tuesday and the cousins have gone. Little K asked when they would come back. She enjoyed having them here; we all did!