Becky finds it weird when I tell her I don’t really know my cousins. She has like 30 and grew up with 20 of them, so she knows everything about how they were like when they were growing up. I have 7 1/2 and really don’t see them very often. I have two and half cousins on my mom’s side – Jeff, Marni and Dera (half cousin). I spent some time with Jeff and Marni when I was really young, but by the time I knew what was going on, they were on to Rapid City and then New Orleans. Marni and I are the same age and got along well in the rare chances we had for get togethers. She was even nice enough to come out to our wedding – but outside of my grandma’s funeral in 2000 I don’t think I’ve seen her since then. Jeff is an architect in Aspen, CO, and I remember spending some time with him when we visited New Orleans twice as kids, but that’s really about all I remember. Dera I’ve only met twice, maybe once – we were both at my uncle’s wedding to her mom in 1986 – that’s all I can say for sure.
On the Newell side, I spent a little more time with my cousins since they all grew up in Minnesota. We typically got together twice a year – once at Darrel’s for Thanksgiving and once at my grandparents during the Fertile Fair in July. My cousins Lance and Ryan are a few years older, Michael is my age and Megan and Monessa are a few years younger. I can’t remember the last time we were all together – I seem to think Megan wasn’t at my grandpa’s funeral in 1997 because she was away at school in LA.
This past weekend we were all able to get together. It was a nice treat to see what was going on in everyone’s lives, and I’m sure it was great for my grandma to have all her grandkids together again. Darrel and Linda made the trek from Tucson, AZ and Megan came in from San Francisco. The rest of the crew lives in or near the Cities and they made the drive up to my parent’s lake place for the Saturday. Ryan and Lance each have young kids about the same age as Katie and Amelia so it was good to see them again (we had met them around Dave’s wedding). Megan had interesting stories to tell of her trip to Macchu Picchu and her life in San Fran working as a graphic designer for Current TV. My uncle Darrel is the source for all the ancestry information I have over the past several years, so it’s always good to get an update from him on our earliest ancestors. I’ve been meaning to write a blog about my Newell ancestry sometime, because it really is quite interesting, but it’s still on my to-do list.
It was good to get back together and hopefully it won’t be 10+ years until we see each other again. I also find it interesting that by the end of the year, Katie and Amelia will have more cousins that I did. I’m sure they’ll have more chances to spend with the cousins and I think it will be a good experience for them.
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