I had a great time last night. I was really lucky in the way I grew up in Snowflake. My best friends were and still are my cousins. My dad has 7 siblings and every one of them had a child within a year of when I was born. So not only do I have a LOT of cousins, I have lots of 1st cousins just my age.
Well January 26th Lynae Taylor turned 40. She's not the 1st to turn 40 of those within a year of me, but Bob's a boy and he was a grade ahead of me, so he doesn't count. Heidi and I decided that I'd take Lynae and meet Heidi in Payson and we'd go to dinner and a movie, but then we learned that Snowflake was playing basketball against Payson last night, so we went to dinner at Chilli's (along with 1/2 of Snowflake) and then went to the game. It was really fun. Crystal's son Ray is on the team and Darin and Jennifer's Louis is the stat guy, then Heidi's nephew played as well as my Uncle Jim and Aunt Dixie's grandson James Denhalter. It was a fun game and good to be cheering for the Lobo's again. Unfortunatley, they lost the game, but I had a great time catching up with Lynae and Heidi and thinking back on how blessed I was for the way I grew up.
Lynae lived just up the hill from me. I don't know how many sleepovers we had (in fact she found a picture of me at a very young age that will not be posted on a blog EVER!), Julie wasn't able to come with us, but she lived next door to Lynae. Cindy lived up the hill the other direction and in High School, Heidi moved into the same neighborhood. The four of us spent a lot of time together. We had lots of other cousins around, LeAnne isn't my 1st cousin, but our HS softball coach called us a blizzard when we were together because we were Flakes and 2 Flakes made a blizzard.
I look back now and think of how I had it so great! We had camp outs in the cedars (okay - Alligator Junipers), spent hours and hours swimming at Taylor's tank, rode 3 wheelers all over the place, and always had some friend/cousin available for hanging out. I also had aunts and uncles and cousins who looked out for me and fed me just as my parents looked out for and fed any kids who were over at our house. It's funny to think that I could do my chores on a summer morning and leave around 10 or 11 am and not come home until time for dinner and my parents never worried about what I was doing or who I was with. What a great way to grow up.
Anyway, here's a picture of Lynae and Heidi and I after the game last night. Ahhhh, the memories!
3 comments:
That is neat you guys got together, but 40!!!!!! It's not happening yet is it? I have to say, I have thought about the way we grew up alot too. I have tried to explain it to my family. I don't know that they will ever really understand. Lots of times I wish my kids could grow up the same way. I thought it was just normal, but I'm learning more and more what a unique situation it was.
HOW fun!
Celeste, love this post! Time does fly and 40 does not seem possible! You are lucky to have grown up with such wonderful people around you. It was good to see you at the game! Take Care!
Post a Comment