For those of you who know me well, you know that I am an only child. For most of my life our friends were more like a family than our family. Not because of bad blood or anything, but because we lived in Texas and my parents' families lived in Michigan, except for my Nana and Papaw who lived on the ranch with us! Anyway my family is pretty small, my mom is an only child and my dad is 1 of 4 kids. But like I said all of those cousins live in MI and that is a long way to go for playdates. I was never one of those kids who played with cousins all the time. When I was in junior high my dad's cousin came down with Uncle Dale (he and Aunt Gretna came every year and stayed at the ranch and it was always awesome having them visit!). Cousin Joni also brought her kids with her (Amy, Jake, and Neil), they were all around my age and it was awesome getting to know cousins! After that, her youngest kid Neil would come down and spend summers with us. The most memorable was when I was 16 and he was 13, we spent all summer on the road showing horses. We went all over TX and to New Mexico, and more places that I cannot remember. Neil is the closest thing to a brother I have ever had. He is an amazing dude. He joined the army and has been at Ft. Bragg in NC for the last couple years. Having him close by has been great even if we only hung out once. Now that you have a little history on the life of Ryan and her fam, here is what happened this weekend!
Neil is finally finished with his army training he was doing in NC and had a graduation yesterday. He invited all of us over to celebrate. This was our first road trip with 2 kids. The drive took about 4.5 hours, and the girls did really well! I don't care how old I get or how much I travel it is still really exciting when you go over a state line. I don't know what it is about it, but it always makes me giddy!
It was a cousin reunion, and it was awesome. I even got to meet another cousin who I had never met before. We had a great time. We went out after dinner and played pool and danced around. It was a great night. I am so thankful for family. Coming from a small family of blood relatives it is so nice to get to know everyone as 'grown ups'. The girls got to meet Uncle Dale and Aunt Gretna, and all of their cousins. I still maintain that it is far too complicated to know which level of removed and 1st or 2nd or whatever cousins. As far as I am concerned family is family and that is all that matters! Thank you for having us share your day Neil! We are so proud of you! Also we love your girlfriend, she is pretty awesome!
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