Cousins, cousins everywhere!

One of the only things that was a little bit sad about living in North Carolina was that we were so far from family--from ALL our family. There was no one even within driving distance for us (except for the six months that Lindsay and Travis were in DC for us to visit). And that is one of the best things about Texas--we don't have any immediate family living here (yet--until Kurt moves here in a month!) but we are just SWIMMING in extended family! And in the last few weeks, we have been able to see ALL of our family living here in Texas.

First: Tommy's cousin Jessie and her family stopped by and stayed the night with us on their way from Houston to Oklahoma. Dane loved playing with their two cute kids, Quintin and Maddie (who didn't want to be in the picture). So these are the boys' second cousins on their Leininger side.

Second: We were in Houston a week or two later to play with my cousin Brittney and her family for the fourth of July. Some more second cousins.

Third: We spent last Saturday at Jon and Sarah Leininger's house (some more Leininger second cousins), because they are moving away from Fort Worth to Provo in a few weeks. We absolutely love Olivia, Anna, and Bianca (and baby Jacob!) and we are sad to say good-bye to them. But we have hopes we will be able to meet up with them maybe when we're there in September--and they say they want to come back to Texas when they're done with Jon's MBA.

Dane got all dressed up by Olivia in a girl's pirate dress. He just knew he was a pirate; he didn't know it was for girls. 

Look at these cute kiddos. 

Fourth: We got to play with the Warner kids twice this week. Loralee Warner is Tommy's second cousin, and they live here in Frisco. So Cameron, Mallory, and Mason are Dane and Graham's THIRD cousins. We love seeing them.

Everyone was very happy building forts and painting together.

And fifth: We spent the day at the Myres' house in Double Oak this week. Dane spent maybe three hours swimming around in their awesome pool with Ethan, Katelyn, Matthew, and Ava. Their house is seriously like heaven on earth for Dane. He had a hard time leaving at the end. The Dallas Myres are actually MY cousins, even if they are closer to Dane's age. So that makes them his first cousins once removed.

It was pretty cute seeing Graham and Rachel play together. They're only three months apart. I bet they're going to be good buddies as they get bigger.

So, in the last few weeks, my boys have been able to play with their second cousins, their THIRD cousins, and their first cousins once removed. This has definitely been one of our favorite things about living in Texas. We love, love, love seeing so much family. Tommy and I were talking about how lucky/blessed we are to have such a wide extended family, all of whom we love to see and spend time with. There's nothing quite like being with cousins. I love giving Dane some of that experience that I remember so vividly, of disappearing for hours to play non-stop--that sort of thing that seems like it doesn't happen so often on short play dates at the park that we have in our everyday life here with friends. But it ALWAYS happens on long play days with cousins.

And on that note--we are leaving very soon to go see some of Dane and Graham's ACTUAL first cousins in Utah. WE CANNOT WAIT!