Cousins Weekend 2009: Rockin' the House!

Yes, I SO did use the phrase "Rock the House" as the title of this post. Why? Because my cousin Jenny declared it the phrase of the weekend. So, we used it whenever possible.

Last year, we did a Girls Only Cousins Weekend and this year, someone felt the need to invite the boys. Not sure why. Anyway, we had a great time!

Here are some things we did...

....Went to the Piano Bar without kids....

Seriously, it's hard to be humble when you're related to a group of girls this beautiful.... We played "Would you rather?" while roasting marshmallows in our backyard...
We took the crazy kids to the park...

We grilled out at my sister's with the kids...and these two little ones could be siblings...Born just 12 hours apart. Reagan is catching up to Maddox's height and Maddox is catching up to her blonde hair!And, this is the bunch - minus Talia - who was missed the entire weekend long.

And, here we are with my cousin, Jon. Since Kim finally gave in and married him, we adopted her as our real cousin and made Jon our in-law....but we decided to let him back in for the photo. Here are some fun quotes from the weekend. I don't think I'll put WHO said them, as apparently my Aunt Dawn reads our blogs and then we get in trouble for swearing. MESSAGE TO DAWN: If you are reading this, see below to see what YOUR daughter said. Poop. Butt. Fart. (That felt so good. My aunt Dawn hates those words. As does my father.)

• "I came home from that trip and I realized there were a lot worse things than being alone."
• "There's an anorexic girl at our fitness club and we call her 'Bacon Double Cheeseburger.'"
• To the waitress: Excuse me, ma'am but are we going to 'rock the house' tonight?
• Ookie Cookie and Elephant Walk
• Heather burping underneath her breath and claiming no one hears it that way.
• How do you get an Iowa State Grad off your front porch? Pay for the pizza!
• f*&% you, Holly (This was Kelly)
• "I'm telling Dawn!"
• How dare you get another beer! We wanna leave this place!
• Holly saying she would kiss everyone's armpits for $5. Jenny undercut her for $4.
• Joe not knowing what a Gravy Boat was.
• Guthrey being called a 'neck donor'.
• Jon Bishop not knowing what '666' stood for.
• "Jon, don't stick things in my butt please."
• Jenny not knowing what bile was.

And, the others I will leave out, as I don't think this blog is the place for them!

Being around my cousins is one of my favorite pasttimes because we spend as much time possible as laughing with each other, and learning from each other, and listening to each other. Each one of us is unique, yet we all have similarities too.

As we were roasting marshmallows, I bent over and apparently showed my buttcrack. Heather reminded us all of "The Christmas of Holly's Buttcrack" which occurred in 2008 at Gma and Gpa Remsburg's house. And, as we were laughing remembering it all, I said, "Oh, gosh, remember Grandpa? He thought that was so funny and then when he was sick..." and I trailed off. Because when he was sick, I asked him if he wanted to see my buttcrack again- if Christmas might not have been enough for him. And, he laughed really hard. That was the only time his name came up. He would be proud of us. Well, not so much for my buttcrack, but for sticking together, for remaining friends, for loving each other's kids, for taking care of each other. And, it's because of him and Grandma, and our parents, that we did grow up being friends. And, probably why I want to make sure my kids' best friends are their cousins.

Girls-Only in 2010! Let's Bring Down the House, Ladies! : )