Saturday, July 21

Family

Family is a funny thing. I have my parents, but no siblings, so my immediate family is more like my aunts/uncles, grandparents, and cousins. My extended family is all of the family my parents grew up with and the kids they all had.

So since my mom grew up in Illinois, she has a lot of cousins who live about an hour away from me. One of the family units (my mom's dad's sister's kids and grandkids) is one that I saw fairly frequently as I grew up. The last time I was there was the summer of 2003 for a small-ish family reunion.

Well, the annual Hastings reunion was today and I went. It was completely sureal to drive in MY car on those small gravel roads between corn fields. But I really enjoyed seeing so many of my extended family (as well as my immediate family who I saw in June) and it was fun to see the realization on their faces when they figured out who I was.

Here are a few snapshots from the beautiful day we spent in New Douglas, IL.

Terri (mom's cousin) and Tim (Jennifer -mom's cousin's daughter-'s husband)
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LaVerne (my grandma) and Vina (mom's cousin)
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Don (mom's cousin), Dale (mom's brother), and Mike (mom's cousin-in-law)
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Katie (mom's cousin's grand-daughter) and son (Evry - I rocked him to sleep... so cute!)
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Jan (mom's sister), (?), Vicki (mom's cousin), Terri (mom's cousin/Vicki's sister), and Katie's daughter
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Jennifer (mom's cousin's daughter) and husband (Tim); with Hailey
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Matt, Jess (mom's cousin's daughter/Jennifer's cousin), and Hailey (Jess's daughter)
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