COUSINS!

One of the most joyful things of summer is seeing cousins reunited, rubbing shoulders, playing hard and, crashing just as hard at the end of the day.

The cousins were excited for the second annual reunion at Boonedock's with the Bastians

and Kellogg kids (who reminded us it is now called Wahooz)

Started off the days with the cotton candy

and smiles that went for miles

Tried to burn off some of that sugar with fast pitch baseball

Trevor managed to hit some of those 60mph balls.

Rachel and Natalie had water battles

in the bumper boats to burn off their sugar rush.

Jacob and Trevor (who looked like brothers instead of cousins)

worked up a good sweat on the putt putt course .

Their sugar rush had subsided so we stocked it again

with blue slushies.

It was so hot outside and they were so thirsty, they didn't even set down their drinks to golf.

Well the gang was almost all there for this cousin shot...Natalie and Rachel were in line for the go-karts.

Don't let the smiles fool you... strategy was a'brewing how to best the course and the cousins on the track... with Sid & Leslie being the most competitive of all.

Carly got turned away at the entrance due to mere centimeters so she went and changed her flip flops to tennis shoes to gain the needed height. Silly since she has a driver's license and drives in real life.

Got some more sugar in the fuel line with mega Snow Cones

These were so big you needed 4 people to eat them

The races began---

and so did the smack talk

both Trevor and Brendan swore they were first.

Team races with Steve and Natalie in one car against Sid and Rachel in another was a fierce competition...there was bumping and bantering but afterwards everyone was still talking but more than anything: STARVING.

So we hooked up with Dan and Sarah and had MORE SUGAR at Fondues in Boise.

Dipping bananas, strawberries, rice krispies and chocolate chip cookies in

milk and dark chocolate was incredible but left everyone praying for a bed to crash into.

The next day we were so excited to see the newest cousin of all! SHELBY!

She is so sweet, even when she was miserable getting in new teeth. We got our sugar rush just holding her.

Have you ever seen such a cute mama and baby?

I tried to steal her and take her with me,

bBut Gauge and Paxton wouldn't let me keep her.

We enjoyed a feast in Dan and Sarah's pretty new home.

Is there any better evening than 10 cute cousins laughing and eating cheesecake?

The last day with cousins in Idaho was a typical whirlwind activities before Kelloggs moved the next day to WA. Athlyn gave everyone a chore list --which when kids and cousins are involved, turns into a game of sorts...

Babysitting Rebecca turned into a makeup and hair pretties party

and all the while Athlyn cleaned out cupboards and made lunch.

Cleaning out the toy box turned into making play dough cookies

and erasing an old hard drive turned into a movie on the computer time

and assembling boxes turned into

TV time

Washing the windows and watering the backyard

turned into water wars

There was loading and unloading the trailer at the storage unit a dozen times

And playing dress up in the clothes set aside for the suitcase.

Followed by taking more clothes out of the suitcase and searching for the iron in order to get presentable for the Jacob's Court of Honor.

And then cleaning out the freezer turned into making more dishes to wash when there is ice cream to finish up.

But at least we got some sister time, talking about everything under the sun while working

Athlyn has the strength of all the kids combined and managed to play hostess and move and make it all look like just any other day's activities. Saying goodbye in never fun, we flew out the next morning, but the cousins stored up enough fun and memories to last for another year.