Cousin Heaven

We have been blessed this summer to have been able to welcome so many sets of cousins into our home. To say that Lauren is a fan of her cousins is an understatement. Adoration, pure and simple. Just state the word "cousin" and she starts to beam and jump up and down.

My cousin Rachel and her two gorgeous girls, Freda and Rosalie, are here visiting from Philly. I haven't seen Rachel since our wedding (without her assistance, I may not have been buttoned into my gown), and her girls for probably 5 years before then. Rachel and I have always had a special bond, ever since she lived with us briefly when I was 13 and she was 18. She introduced me to tofu and Bruce Springsteen, and I was in awe of her free spirit. Still am.

While they were only here for 4 or 5 hours, these pics show a smidgen of how we savored every moment. Lauren's head barely hit the pillow tonight at 7:15 p.m. and she was out like a light. The true benchmark of a fabulous day.

As has become our custom, we started out with fresh guacamole and then hit the pool:





After seeing the kids repeatedly jump from our raised planter into the pool, I decided to join in on the fun (our matching poses definitely not intentional!):



Some playin' with Rosalie before dinner:


Followed by angel food cake and fruit for dessert:


And an encore performance with Pop-Pop Mark (singing "Chantilly Lace" while Lauren busts a move):


Enormous hugs goodbye, sniff, sniff.



We will definitely not let this much time go by without another visit. xoxoxo