Growing up, I was one of thee youngest grandchildren on my Dad's side of the family. My Dad was the youngest of four children, so naturally I was down there too. However, I did get the upside of being the oldest of the youngest. If that makes sense.
Having all of those cousins to look up to and hang out with was always so much fun. It seemed as though our family could never fall apart. We (My cousin Stephanie and I who were inseparable at the time) would always call my Aunt Vicki to ask if we could go swimming in her pool. It wasn't a very big pool by any means, but it was better than spending the day at the reservoir, as we had the last three days before. Usually we would arrive there, and without a knock, walk through the door to see Aunt Vick, Uncle Scott or both watching some sort of adult show that we didn't care about at the time (but later as teenagers grew to love).
As we would swim at her house, we would dirty her towels, raid her cabinet, then depending on which of our cousins was home, is what we would do. If Rachel was home, we would talk about boys. Rachel was four years older than us… I think… at least four years older than me. If Andrew was home, we would swim with him, then do some random but crazy things like fit four people on two bikes and ride around the small town all day. Jumping off the roof of their shed in the back yard onto a couch, that was always fun. There was even one day that we jumped off the roof of Aunt Vicki's house. Or maybe it was Stephanie's, I'm not sure.
Either way, those long summer days when we would ride our bikes over to Aunt Vicki's to go swimming. Afterwards, we would often stop by Grandma and Grandpa's house to see how they were doing, and pick up on our latest made-up murder investigation in their back yard. Beyond the back yard though, was a field, followed by a hill and the woods. We claimed to have a secret club house back there, and right around this time of year, Stephanie and I would always go chive hunting. We would get plastic bags and pick all the wild chives in the field for Grandma.
My oldest cousins, were Adam, Aaron, Lucas and Rachel. It seemed that through my years of junior high and high school, we all seemed to lose touch. We would join in on family conversations over the holidays, if we met, but it wasn't that much. I didn't get to attend Adam's wedding, but I attended Aaron's, but even then it was not much more than a "congrats cous!"
However, within this last year, things have changed a lot. I recently met up with my cousin Adam, who helped me get my first ever cell phone and plan. We have also had quick conversations on Facebook about random things, that and his family is adorable, so I creep on his wife all the time!
My cousin Aaron, started playing Call of Duty with my little brother, and has taken him fishing over some of the summers. I'm glad that they are bonding. When I do see Aaron there is usually a question of how big or defined my gymnast muscles have gotten, most of the time I talk to his wife, Crystal. I remember at a wedding I went to, she told me to enjoy my senior year. Kiss the boys, have fun, make memories, because it would be over before I knew it… and boy was she right! But I took her words for it… if I hadn't, I may not have had the senior year I did. The last thing that I do remember about Aaron though, it was Christmas and we were all jealous of the big present Aaron had sitting next to the tree. It was taller than I was at the time, and as wide as the wall. It looked like it was the box for a massive flat screen… or a car? Just kidding, but seriously, this box was big… I'm sure you all know where this is going. He opened up the box, to find a smaller box. Ten boxes later, taped to the bottom… was a C.D. (That was before that joke became popular, Grandma was obviously a hipster!)
Rachel, I haven't seen much of her, but when I do, I fill her in on the most recent events in my life. Leaving out details, she may give me advice every now and then, but something I will always remember from her… When I was younger, she did my make-up for the first time, and handed me a ton of cloths she no longer wanted for me to take home. She got down on her knees, which was eye level for me. All she said was, "When you're older, you're going to be hot!" Now every time I see her, I just remember that. I had thought she favored my sister over me at the time, so it was a huge compliment.
Lucas, I hate to say that I had favorites, but growing up, Stephanie was obviously my favorite cousin, she was my best friend… and Lucas's sister. So naturally I spent a lot of time around him. I will never forget the one time he had a birthday party, I felt bad because although my parents had gotten him a gift, I didn't… so I got one of those old plastic M&M containers and filled it with all the loose change I had saved up (It was less than a dollar). But when he opened it, he looked over at me and said, "Thanks Becca!" Of all the memories I have with Luke, like doing the "saved your life!" over a ditch. Playing Murk, in the pool when the water was still green and murky (hence the name). There was when I was first learning how to play clue and he won the game five minutes into it… and not to mention our trips to Gatlinburg.
I could go on and on with the amount of memories I have with him, such as dancing to Audio Adrenaline's "I Get Down…" It's just a simple fact that this guy has given me so much to remember! Then there was the day that he had his going away party for the army. I was actually worried about him, not knowing where he was spiritually at the time, but Grandpa took him by the arm and said, "heaven is only a prayer away…" and that is another moment with Luke I will never forget. As of lately there is something I have to thank him for, he sent a text to an old friend, telling her that she should reconsider being friends with me… Later the day that he texted her, I got a text asking to meet up. Unfortunately, I had already left town, but it's good to know Lucas is looking out for us! And every now and then, I get a comment on a status, photo, or link I share, and we have a short conversation to let me know he's still around.
These four, are the ones that I grew up around. Although the remaining, Stephanie, Andrew and Bryce were around most of the time, they were closer to my age. Stephanie and Andrew were the one's that I hung out with the most. The ones I was closest too. However, these four - Adam, Aaron, Rachel and Lucas - were the ones that I looked up to. The ones that were far ahead of me in life. These were the ones that I had the smallest relationship with, but the fact that we were cousins, family, and on a different level than normal, friends, made it unique.
So my point to this post, as I was scrolling through Facebook today, I see a ton of status updates, and pictures of my cousins with their different lives. These cousins that I grew up looking up to. Most of the time I felt like that innocent little kid, being opened up to the world by the things that they were doing around me, or the situations they were in. Like I said, during high school, something seemed to disappear between all of us. Yeah we were family, but it seemed like that was all we were.
However, now that we are older, I realized something. They didn't go away. They may have started families, and lives away from our group of what was 10 - now 11 - cousins, but nothing has really changed. We are still cousins, we are still there for each other. We all have different views of the world, have walked different paths, but we still have those memories there. Easter egg hunts (which will probably be my next post!) and Christmas parties at Grandma's… those awesome memories that we all share! So, that thing that I thought I lost in high school, wasn't really lost. We still joke, we still have fun and I'm sure if we could find a day when we were all free, we could have a Christmas party or Easter Egg hunt (with everyone putting in money for the golden egg - since we are the adults now). Nothing between us has changed, our lives have just changed, but we are still the same 10 (now 11 - thanks to Alissa) cousins, and that's what we will always be.
And for the record… if we ever do have another Easter Egg hunt between us… I will be the one to FINALLY find the golden egg…
And for the second record, the last year that we did that… when the egg was in the tree, Stephanie and I totally saw the egg way before Andrew saw it and grabbed it. It was only because he was closer! But oh well it's just for the record. We found the egg first! :)
That's It For Today!
-Becca
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