A birthday and a reunion

Yesterday we made a short trek to Michigan to see some people that share the same blood line. Those would be my cousins!

We had a wonderful gathering at the home of one of my cousins. We had blue skies intermittently mixed with quick summer downpours throughout the whole day. We easily adapted to moving as a group of about 30 from his comfortable yard to his cozy house as the weather dictated, back and forth.

Another reason to get together on this particular day was the event of my Uncle's 75th birthday; the father of my party hosting cousin.

He now holds the honor of being the eldest relative on that branch of the family tree; his two sibling's (one being my Mother) are both gone. He is the one we now go to for stories told and questions to be answered.

The above photo is him as a boy with his parents (my Grandparents) and his sister (my Mother). His oldest sister must have been the photographer! I do love the stories, and a few new ones were told yesterday!

My cousins had some old 8mm family movies transferred to DVD and we had a glorious time narrating and laughing as we all sat in the same room to view some of it.

We marveled, as we watched ourselves on film as infants, at how we all survived the seemingly death-trap contraptions of babyhood eras gone by.

The strollers and walkers and cribs and playpens...

Several times throughout the day, my daughter commented that we needed to get together much more frequently as, "I want to learn all the names and get to know these people!"

I have 2 cousins born the same year as I and our conclusion was that, We are becoming the generation that sits and talks and tells stories as the little ones run around and play.

When did that happen?

A note about this photo: I have used this photo before on my blog and have previously commented on how I like this photo...it is funny- the fact that only my Uncle and the dog appear happy. Maybe they know something??!