Day Nine: Cousins

There is so much joy in running for me. It’s my favorite thing to do when travelling, a great pace at which to orient oneself to the local scene, sights, people, personality. I was grateful this morning for a long run along the harbor, up a hill leading to what Tom defined as “the next Agrestic”, and up staircases leading to gorgeous (though playgroundless) city parks. It was an hour and a half of meditation where I shook off the strange dreams of the previous night, aligned my spine, cleared my head and my lungs.
When I got back to the campground I reveled in the joyful welcome of my bike and scooter riding kids and we jumped into the car to head to spend the day with cousins. Not long after we arrived (it’s a half hour or more up the 5 to the 91), I was in the steamy hot bliss of the shower. After a long stretch it’s pretty special to sit in the hot running water. Just this moment as the night air is getting chillier and chillier I am dreaming of a long, hot bath, but the shower was pure heaven.

Mary and Dave lay out a spread every time we come, and today was no different, beginning with an extravagant breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon and bagels. Much needed fuel for the park visit that came next. We’d brought Jordan and Sawyer’s bikes and when our kids mounted theirs we learned that Sammy and Jack don’t have bikes and this was the cause of much upset. Tom and Ned planned to teach Sammy at the park, maybe a bit later in the day on a solo trip as she had some embarrassment about being seven and not knowing how, but somehow soon after she arrived (late due to a tearful breakdown), she was getting ready to get on with her dad. I could see the tears and frustration starting up, and since Sammy and I have a pretty easy repoire I asked if I could help.

It’s amazing how different learning something can be depending hoe different your relationship is with certain people. I’d like to say that I’m easygoing enough that Tom could easily teach me to kayak or snowboard, but perhaps because of our closeness or of feeling safe with him, I express my fear rather than focusing on the learning. Sammy was coming too easily to tears with her parents about everything, but with me she was all confidence and smiles and was quickly on her way to riding. I added another three miles of pretty good running in clogs) to my total mileage for the day and pretty well negated my shower. It was so worth it. Her progress was monumental – after a late lunch, Tom took Jordan and Sammy and Laney on her scooter for a long exploratory trek around the neighborhood. I took Jack who was enamored with Sawyer’s bike and Julia who was just starting to get past the constantly braking step and Sawyer who was on Julia’s three -wheeled princess scooter on a long circle around the neighborhood which was somewhat more involved and taxing given the little ones inability to power themselves up and down the driveway slopes to cross the streets, and to consistently safely police themselves in doing so. But it was well worth their feelings of accomplishment at the end.

I did two massive loads of laundry and played a fun game of Phase 10 with Tess and Jen and Mary and we had a great Sloppy Joe dinner with the kids in one room, all the girls but Laney in princess garb, and the adults in the kitchen/dining room. Sawyer had a much needed bath before cake, and Jordan decided to stay for a sleepover. We haven’t gotten so much as a phone call and her last sleepover a year ago involved tears and a late night phone call. Even though it was cousins, it was a little bit hard to drive away. My little baby seems so much older and bigger every day – although seeing her with Sammy and Laney I am so grateful that she got her mama’s geekiness or perhaps I should say dedication to her own ideals. She is thrilled to be playing with Strawberry Shortcake rather than a Wii, and dressing up like a princess has her at her most content (when not on monkey bars, in pool, or on a bike). She played a lot with Julia, the three and a half year old girl, who was willing to do all these things without worrying about it being to babyish. Sammy got drawn into dress up as well, and it was fun to see them all running around so comfortable together.
It’s strange to have an empty bunk in our trailer, but I am thrilled that Jordan has cousins she’s known for long enough that she wants to be with them this much. And it will be fun to have Sawyer time in the morning. Still, I can’t wait to have Brooks cousins for them to build long relationships with, to have sleepovers and dress up parties and bike riding marathons with. Not that I don’t feel close to these cousins: teaching Sammy to ride a bike will always be a pretty special memory. I never felt less close to Uncle Nick because he wasn’t the one my mom was related to, so I would hope the same is true of how Sam and Jack feel about me. And I know to Jordan, Uncle Ryan is synonymous with Aunt Allison. What special relationships those of nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, and cousins are. How lucky I feel to have had such wonderful ones. How glad I am that my children get them as well.