Cousin Competition

Saturday my big ol’ crazy family got together celebrate my paternal grandmother’s (yes, that Grandmother’s) 90th birthday. It was super-fun. One of my favorite parts about these events is getting to visit with my cousins. Here we all are with my grandparents – all eight of their grandchildren: (L-R) my cousins Donovan and Shelby, my brothers Andy and Charles, my cousins Rachel, Amy, Mackenzie, and me.

I have been privileged to share both childhood and adulthood with my maternal cousins, Emily and her sister Anna. But my dad’s side is spread across the country, and my three youngest cousins all live out-of-state. I was recently reunited with two of them, Donovan and Shelby, last Thanksgiving and we really hit it off as adults. (I hadn’t seen Shelby since she was 14; she’s now 23!) Saturday I also got to see my cousin Mackenzie and meet her husband for the first time. I hadn’t seen her since I was pregnant with Sophie, and she was a single med school student, and she’s now married and expecting a baby girl herself. After the party, I invited these cousins back to our house so we could spend some time together.

Of course, on the way, I called Emily to make her jealous. “So, my Brads cousins are coming over tonight. Are you sweating?”

She couldn’t even play it cool for a minute. “I do not approve!” she said nervously.

Right after that, I saw my cousin Anna in her car at a stop sign. Coincidence? I think not! The other 2/3 of the Supercousins were pretty jealous that I was about to share some cousin love with the other side of the fam!

Despite the pressure from Emily & Anna to call my little party off, Shelby, Donovan, Mackenize, and her hubs Colin all came over around eight Saturday night. And we had an awesome time eating, laughing, talking, and finding we have more things in common than just really inbred good genes.

We’re also all smart, witty, and fabulous-looking!

But alas, the next morning they boarded planes and in Donovan’s case, a motorcycle, and headed back to their respective homes across the South.

Lucky for you, Em, they all live far away and none of them asked me to start a blog with them. So – I guess I’ll keep you and your crafty sister – for now. But you MIGHT need to step up your game a little bit!