Jill & Greg, our friends in New York, have an amazing vacation home here in St. George and we get to stay in it because we’re super lucky (and because Greg & Jill are super generous). These photos were taken this morning. They show the view from the master bedroom balcony. Can you believe I get to wake up to this?
Also. I’ve been getting emails about Cousins Week. For those of you that are curious, Cousins Week was started by my sister Sara last year. Basically, any cousins 8 or older are invited to her house for a camp of sorts. It’s a week(ish) of unlimited popsicles, movies whenever you’d like, swimming, sugar cereal, staying up late and bonding with cousins. Each day, a little structure is built in with one outing, one craft or activity and one meal that the kids make together. Aunts and Uncles and Grandma help out with the structured parts and Sara takes care of the rest.
Some of the activities so far this week: hiking, tie-dyeing, rock-climbing, seeing Toy Story 3, making ancestor albums, and going to a kids exercise gym.
Six of my eight siblings (and spouses!) are in town to hang out with each other and to help out with the event. Like me, many have younger kids (for example, you may know Jordan and Liz). So we’re also having a very casual Cousins Week Jr. for the little tikes. It mostly involves water-wings and goldfish crackers.
Does your family do anything like Cousins Week? Is your family into reunions?
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I had no idea there would be palm trees there! Wow.
I love the idea of cousins week. We just had a mini cousins weekend and plan to do it again next year – maybe turn it into a cousins week as the wee ones get older. How very fun!
I love the idea of cousins week too. Very cool. My family used to have big family reunions every summer, then it became every other summer….gradually decreasing and now we haven’t had one in quite a few years. (Grandparents passed away, and now aunts/uncles are doing their own within their families more..) Makes me sad. I’m going to do what I can to resurrect this for my own kids (who are still very little). Playing with my cousins in the summertime created some of my favorite childhood memories!
Cousins week sounds like a great idea– I just don’t think I’d be the one to volunteer to host it!
On my side of the family, we used to try to get together for birthdays and have a party for each person individually, but as the family grew, that got harder. This is the second summer that we’re doing an “All-Family Birthday Party.” We play party games, eat dinner together, serve up a big birthday cake filled with candles. Everyone who comes to the party gets the name of another family member and we’re charged with spending no more than $5 on a gift for that person, but you can regift or make or embellish shamelessly. It was actually really fun last year, and thanks to your reminder, I’m getting ready to start my shopping for this year’s party (in about two weeks)! We still call people on their birthdays, but there’s not as much pressure to ship gifts and make sure they get to the recipients on time.
Your pics make me miss the mountains terribly. I am glad you are having a wonderful vacation.
Cousins week sounds amazing. We don’t do anything like that, but it might be time to get started!!
Gorgeous! I love those red rocks.
Cousins week sounds like a fabulous idea! Unfortunately we’d only have 2 qualified to attend, but I think I’ll put this on the back burner for the future.
Awesome!! I would love to do this with my siblings and their children- especially since I am the only one who lives out of town…
home. ah i miss waking up to the BEAUTIFUL red rocks every morning. enjoy your stay in st. george!
I was curious about cousin’s week also. I only have one sister (a Sarah!) and we only have 5 children between us – the oldest are 11 and the youngest is 5 . . . I wonder if I still have time to pull one together for the end of this summer? It’s a lovely tradition.
we’re doing cousin week starting tomorrow with all the Palmer cousins. can’t wait.
Yes, in fact our family retreat starts this Saturday. Activities include swimming, fishing, boating, campfires, etc. There will be 25 of us staying and playing together all week.
Wow! What a gorgeous view! Thanks for the posts today.
My sibs and I only have 3 kids total and all are under age 3 – I look forward to starting a cousin’s week tradition as they get older. It sounds like a ton of fun.
Enjoy your vacation!
Growing up, we were really close with our cousins and I think a large part of it was do to the cousin-staycations that we had. We would alternate houses each year, spend about 3-4 days together playing and chatting it up as we grew older. Some great memories were created and those were some really great times.
i am obsessed with the idea of cousins weeks. i am SO excited for my child to be old enough to do this with my siblings kids (though some of my neices and nephews are 10-14 years older than my child) what do you do about big gaps like that?
My parents have a vacation home in St. George and it is always a place we look forward to visiting. Be sure to eat cupcakes and lunch too at Twenty-Five Main there- we love it! There is also a great splash pad and lazy river across the street from it (Tabernacle and Main)
How much fun!
I am number 8 of 9 kids (8 of us are girls) and we do similar things.
My sister Lindee hosted a “Camp Rampage” for all the nieces and nephews (cousins, if you ask them) with very similar activities.
I think the family get togethers are the *best* thing about being brought up in an LDS family :)
Hoping we will still have them by the time I have kiddos!
I married into a family that is REALLY into reunions. This August is the big one. 1,000 family member camping at the old family homestead in Arizona. Sadly, but not really, I won’t be going. I am just going to send my husband with my two sons and I will stay home with my new baby.
Yes! We do something like that, though it isn’t focused on just kids. It’s my favorite part of the year, hands down. Hooray for awesome families~
Please post directions on how they did those tie dye jackets. Would love to do those with my daughters.
St. George is such a fantastic place – I hope it’s not too hot for you, it can get pretty brutal there!
Aww, that sounds like so much fun! My husband and I aren’t from big families, and our daughter has no cousins and no prospect for any in the near future, so I’m a bit jealous! I guess she’ll have to make do with sibling(s) (there’s one on the way) and regular summer camps, and of course the doting grandparents!
I love St. George too. In fact that beautiful red mountian is the view out my back windows. And I could walk three blocks and I would be at the base of it. Have fun here.
LOVE the idea of a cousins week. We have family visits and since there are only two girls that have kids (five cousins!) it always feels like the visit is all about the kids! I may be stealing this idea of a special LONG visit just for the cousins in a few years (right now they are too young for me to handle them all by myself!!). Great idea. Thanks for sharing.
Wow. What a view – I’m soaking it in (aaaaahhh).
Cousins week – what a cool name.
My family could never have a cousins week because someone other than a cousin would show up (it’s usually my one super cool auntie). My family has a family reunion ever other year during the summer which in turn is ever year – one for my grandfathers family and then the next my grandmothers family (both grand parents deceased). Otherwise my family takes a big trip every Thanksgiving holiday – Vegas, Disney, the Lake, etc. Then there are the impromptu gatherings that are held well – every month…all and all it can be a handful but at the end of the day I wouldn’t have it any other way.
(I know that was a lot – sorry). Thanks for sharing…going back to take in the view again.
Gorgeous photos — love that blue sky!
And reading about cousins week got me so excited. My sister and I are super close, and I’m really hoping our daughters will be, too (they’re 2.5 and 1 yo). Really, they have no choice. :)
I love the idea of cousins week! My mom does a “grandma day” Every Wednesday she watches the grandkids that are not in school from 9-1 so we can get a little break and run errands etc. During the summer she alternated big kids one week and little kids the next when she was in town. They play, eat lunch and watch a movie. She often has craft projects for the kids too and they LOVE it. (me too obviously.)
What a viewwww
rustedwood.blogspot.com
We always talk about having a cousins’ camp. We are getting ready to head to Navoo, Il for a family reunion. Every other year my husband’s brothers and sisters get together with their families. We each take a turn hosting in or near our city. The others have to get there. We all pitch in with food and have a great time… theoretically. Next week will only be our second reunion.
WOW! Love the view, makes me very homesick. ENJOY!
Family is the Best! (And the worst, sometimes, I suppose.)
We are having a cousins week of our own, I suppose. My sister and her 3 kids are staying with us this week. Lots of pool trips and meals and bon fires and outdoor movies and plays performed by our troupe of small-frye thespians. It’s wonderful. Can’t wait to see more pictures.
The Stacks just had a family vacation on Cape Cod. Four brothers (one deceased) and their spouses, eight children with six spouses and their eight children = many happy, sunny and sandy memories.
my family had cousins week growing up but we called it camp. I have 18 first cousins and when most of us were in elementary school my grandparents rented out a church camp many years in a row. It was wonderful! That was our vacation every year. At the time I was quite jealous of friends whose families went to the beach or disney but now that we are adults all of us cousins think we are so lucky to have had that experience. And, we are all great friends!
Our kids are too young and we would need far too much Coke to survive a Cousins Week. (But the idea gives us something to plan for the future.) Instead we hold Craft Day once a week. My kids get together with their cousins on Wednesday afternoons to make a craft, go on a field trip, or sometimes, just play!
What amazing family traditions!! It says so much about what type of amazing people you all are!!
I’d love to do something like this…even though there aren’t that many cousins! My husband’s family just had a reunion, and I definitely need one for mine! Thanks for the inspiration!