Cousins

I mentioned earlier how much I love my family. Nothing can replace that relationship. I have amazing parents who made all the right decisions when raising me -they knew what I needed and when I needed it. One thing they definitely got right is the choice they made to raise us near our cousins. I know my other siblings benefited from having a cousin nearby, but I think I was the one who was blessed the most. Today's Blog is dedicated to my cousin Emily:

She was born a little over a year after me and that year never made a difference. We played together as much as our parents would allow. Although we got in TONS of fights when we were little we still loved eachother. One of my favourite memories of Emily is having fashion shows at her house dressing in all the clothes from her never ending designer wardrobe. I quickly became obsessed with fashion thanks to those fashiopn shows. Other fun things we did included:

• Making Dances - we would spend hours with our other cousin Randa coreographing very detailed and complicated dance moves to songs from way before we were born
• Basketball Camps - we went to all our basketball camps together and had a blast. I remember going to one in Olds (week long overnight camp) and having Emily there to help me with my homesickness
• Trips to Utah and California - we had so much fun touring and going to beaches - but most importantly we loved DisneyLand
• EFY - I went to EFY with Emily every other year (I alternated with Randa) We loved the boys!!
• Waterton and Writing on Stone Camping Trips - We biked around all day long and took pictures of stupid things. I remember this one tume we still hiked to the top of Bears hump even though I was in such a bad mood - once we got to the top I couldn't be mad anymore - the view was gorgeous!!
• Hiking trips to Mountain Lodges - We ate so many Eatmore bars and made up so many silly songs (We definitely had all the lyrics to Bohemian Rapsody down by the end of the first trip)

We did so many fun things growing up, but regardless of how exciting the actual events were, we had fun because we just liked to be around eachother. Our relationship is simple and unforgetable. We can get together after not talking for MONTHS and still get along like nothing has changed. This last summer right after we moved into our house, Emily came for a visit and we spent hours one night taking pictures. We were so tired by the end, but I loved the results - A ton of pictures of us just being us.