Ames Cousins

The concept of "cousins" has been a big one this year. Some of you have commented, and I should point out that all of the cousins on my side are second cousins, as I'm an only child. However, *my* cousins are like siblings to me, and so I think nothing of them being cousins to the kids. What's an extra word in there anyway?

But I digress. Cousins! During our stay in Wyoming, the kids got to reconnect with their Ames cousins! They only have two (so far). Joe's oldest brother, Rich and his wife Amy have two kids. Nick is 8 1/2 and Ally is 7. They had all met a few years ago, but it's been so long and the kids were SO little, that they don't remember. No biggie! They sure remember this time!

Waiting for the parade to start. I'm not sure why Nick has such a sour look on his face. He was in a perfectly fine mood. I think he was just anxious to start getting candy.

This is Nick, 8 1/2. He was only around 7 months when we got married! He loves baseball!! I was so impressed with his willingness to share. During the parade, he would get a lot of candy, but he would ALWAYS make sure that the younger kids got some too. No one asked him to do it, he just did it!

Miss Ally turned 7 in May. She is very artistic! In fact, she drew Snoopy on shirts that both she and Nick were wearing. I was VERY impressed :) She even drew Maddie a lion! She was such a sweetheart! I think she was too young to remember meeting me the first time, so we had a good time getting to know each other this time around. Apparently, a quilt I made before she was born is a VERY special blanket of hers. Awww :)

I was SHOCKED at how instantly the girls bonded. They are two years apart, and I think that helps. But Ally was so sweet with Maddie, listening to her talk about her lions and playing with her. It was really wonderful to watch. We found a little lion for Maddie to give to Ally at the end of the trip. Apparently, Ally collects stuffed animals and doesn't have a lion. Now she can always remember her little cousin who loved lions.

Nick and Ben got along great too! However, there's a much bigger age difference for them, and they're boys, so it wasn't quite as intense as the girls. But Nick was very nice to Ben, and never minded that Ben followed him around.

It was such a great experience for everyone!! I'm so glad we got a big ol' house to share. It gave us so much more family time to spend with each other. And this past week I got an iPhone, so we plan to do video chats with Rich to keep the kids connecting with each other. Awesome!