Cousins

On this day, Fox and I went to my aunt's house to meet up with my dad, brother and cousins.

My aunt now lives in the house that I grew up in, until my parents got divorced when I was 11. My grandparents used to live downstairs and our family lived upstairs and I have so many memories from this place. A few years ago my dad remodeled it and now my aunt lives downstairs and my brother Dominic lives upstairs. I love that the house is still in our family and that I can always visit this special place that my grandpa had built himself many, many years ago.

These things are everywhere in Germany. I had one when I was a kid (or maybe my brother did and I used it...ha) and you still see tons of children with these. Fox loved it so much that we had to get him his own once we got back to the States. He hasn't stopped driving it since - although it is way too hot in Phoenix to drive it outside, so he's been driving back and forth in the living room and kitchen, good thing it's a long room!

Anyway, when we got to my aunt's house Fox was a little shy, as he always is, but quickly warmed up over a game of "memory" with his cousins. They are technically not his cousins, they are my cousin's kids, but that's probably as close as he ever gets to cousins.

Monkey see, Monkey do! We all cracked up when Fox started copying Lias, so cute!

I really loved hanging out with my cousins and I'm so grateful that they always take the time to see me when I'm in town. 

Monika (on the left) and I were inseparable growing up. When you live in a tiny village and your parents basically tell you to come back home when the street lights turn on, you have to get creative to pass the time. And oh boy, we sure did! I remember jumping from the roof of the carport with umbrellas "Mary Poppins Style", catching lizards and naming them all in a disgusting pond, naming all the trees in the park and carving their names in them after we baptized them with my grandpa's mineral water and finally "The Rocker Club". Monika, Birgit (my other cousin who you saw on a previous blog - the one I met at the toy store) and I founded this club, pretending to be badasses. To join in, you had to do a "dare" by going into the local restaurant (where all of our moms worked by the way...eeks) and telling them you put a quarter in the gumball machine outside and nothing came out. Therefore they would give you another quarter and you got a free gumball! So bad! I think the club lasted a few hours, but we all still remember it.

And at this point a big shoutout to Monika, who apparently is my most loyal blog follower, which I just found out. :)

Fox had never been on a balcony and he was fascinated by it. He thought it was so fun!

It was such a great afternoon!