I was born into a huge family with lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. My dad has nine siblings and my mom has four, so I’ve had some great memories from all of those family reunions. Most of my family lives in the country, so it’s nice to visit them and leave the “city life” for a while. Here are some great memories that I’ve shared with my family, that you can probably relate to if you grew up with your cousins too!

1. I grew up swimming in the pond with all my cousins.

We used to use “the jugs”, which were two empty laundry detergent tubs tied together with a string that we could sit on and use to float. We eventually upgraded to a floating dock and trampoline!

2. One of my cousins accidentally slammed my fingers in the toy chest when I was little and grandma got out the bag of frozen peas to use as an ice pack.

3. One time, we played the game “how many cousins can you fit in a port-o-pot?”.

I think we got at least ten of us to fit!

4. We all used to crowd around a little TV and play with grandma’s old video games, mostly Mario, Power Rangers, and Kirby’s Avalanche.

5. We also used to play with Dominos, but only ever built giant towers and knocked them down all over the floor.

6. The toys in the toy chest were always the same.

There’s a picture of my aunts and uncles when they were kids, and some of the toys in the background of that picture are still at grandma’s house after all these years.

7. One day, my grandpa taught me and one of my cousins how to gut a fish.

We caught the fish out of his pond using a butterfly net and ate them later.

8. My aunt and I used to sit on the floor at her house with our guitars and play songs from her song book.

The first song she taught me was Grandpa by The Judds.

9. We would spend hours singing on my aunt’s karaoke machine and looking through the giant binders of CDs, ranging from old country to pop music of the early 2000s.

10. In the winter, we used to sled down the hill in a long chain.

10. It became a tradition to play hide and seek in the dark outside after having a bonfire and roasting marshmallows.

11. We also started camping the night before our family reunion, and it was always fun to run through the creeks, swim in the pond, and swing on the rope swing.

12. We even went to the drive in movies a couple times, and other times we packed out the movie theater!

Sometimes life gets so busy and we forget the people that grew up with us. Every time I get the chance to see my family I cherish it. There are so many memories that I have with my cousins that I will remember forever.