Sunday, April 12, 2009

When Oz Came to Visit ME

Once upon a time there were 4 siblings born in Pennsylvania, each 5 years apart. The first two siblings managed to each have 5 kids - each having one at almost the same time, so they had a matching cousin. Now the older 3 of each set were lucky enough to see their cousins with some frequency. But the baby cousins, who are but a month apart? Yeah they were lucky to see each other one time a year.

When the baby cousins were about 8, the grandparents had a 50th wedding anniversary. Everyone dressed waaaaaay up b/c that's what you did in the 70's. And the siblings hired a professional photographer for their parents' party. The grandchildren all gathered for a special photo. The older grandchildren made faces and were silly, but when the photographer said, "Get serious." they did. But they forgot to tell the baby cousins, who didn't know when to stop. In the days before digital cameras. And so, when the very expensive professional photos came back, the 2 baby cousins were making AWFUL faces. And they got beaten. KIDDING. (Hey my mom reads this blog!)

Fast forward 34 years. Those baby cousins haven't seen each other in .... 10 years? But the true baby - JO over at Merry Ol' Land of Oz - has taught her cousin to blog. So they have kept in touch. And when they got together? Well they had to take pictures. But some things you just never live down....


Yeah, it was kind of like that 34 years ago. Yeah Jo I know you want to totally kill me right about now. You are younger and all that so I can apparently still make you do silly things!



Awwwww that's better....


And the King? Yeah he was a HUGE hit just as I knew he would be. There's Son enjoying having a little brother, if only for a night.

The three teens, just months apart, enjoyed the night, even though they hadn't seen each other in....10 years? I think the Cadet (middle) was enjoying thinking he was the tallest... (and yes those are the "twins" at 1 YO in the background. I still adore those photos even if they embarrass the hell out of my kids!)



While the Big Kids went on the trampoline, the King sat totally absorbed in Halo or whatever the Big Kids left on XBox360....the scary part was the King knew exactly how to play it.

And with a HO HO HO and a Tra la la, it was time to go...It was waaaaay too short of a visit. Come back soon My Merry People of Oz!

11 comments:

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

How much does your "little" girl look exactly like you?!

Lana@The Kids Did WHAT?! said...

Awe.. Now I want to see the original awful face making pic!

Too bad your visit wasn't long enough, but sounds like you had a good time. :)

Kalynne Pudner said...

You lost me after the elder cousins had five kids apiece. My brain shuts down at the thought of more than nine.

JO said...

Hey, I LIKE the way you tell this story! Gets the responsibility off us and back where it belongs - on T, J, C, G, L, D, R, and Cpearson! Nobody TOLD us that we had to stop making faces! You would think that - with four older siblings apiece, we would have managed to have ONE of them bossing us around - they always seemed to managed to do so at other times! LOL!

I have missed seeing ya my cuz and genuinely enjoyed your hospitality. Throughout life, many things change - but our relationship is definitely one of my constants - and for that I am blessed and most definitely grateful!

Busy Bee Suz said...

Such great pictures. I think having cousins is the best...they are nicer than siblings. Right??
Your daughter is YOUR clone!!!

Stephanie said...

What a wonderful gift to have such a big family..funny faces and all!

zelzee said...

I would only see my cousins at weddings and funerals for years. (It seemed more funerals). Kept saying we would get together, but never did.....
We finally decided we would meet once a month for dinner.

We have been doing it for over a year now, and we love every minute!

Feisty Irish Wench said...

My cousins are all either 15+ years older or 15+ years younger than I am. Thankfully my kids don't have that problem - including the incubating stowaway. There are two more on my husband's side of the family incubating in short order after ours.

word verf: lable - a really simple word often misspelled and it utterly annoys me to see it in such a way (like sandle - uggh)

shrink on the couch said...

there's something about cousins that makes for automatic friends. is it in the gene pool? close enough but far enough apart? I don't know. but it's special.

Margo said...

That is the greatest when cousins are about the same age. My girls have that with nephews on my husband's side of the family... it was almost strange how quickly they reconnected as 12 - 16 year olds last summer. Glad you had fun and the pictures are great :)

Carol P. said...

Hey! I bumped into a picture from the 50th reunion sometime in the past year. It was your brother G. standing up proudly in his 1975 leisure suite, long pointy collar and all. I think I also had one of JO (and maybe TGND? can't recall, but you two were inseparable during that event). I had recently gotten my first P&S (film) camera and was taking pictures with all the earnestness a 10YO can muster.

I'll have to see if I can remember where I saw it and dig it up again. Just to embarrass G.

And it's just like you babies-of-the-family to blame it on your elders. 'Nuff said.