Friday has a very small family

The roadtrip's going really well so far! On our way down to Texas we stopped in Indianapolis, Memphis, Dallas, and Austin. Corpus Christi is right on the Gulf of Mexico, so we just spent the day at the beach today. I was very good about applying sunscreen, but apparently the sun doesn't care about things like that and my back is still very burned. We're leaving for dinner at the marina very shortly, so I'll have to make this quick!

I have a very small family seeing as I'm an only child. It's just my mom, dad, our cat, and me out here in Michigan. All our extended family is out in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Ever since I was born we've been going out to New England twice a year (summer and Christmas) to visit all our family. Whereas I have no siblings, my mom has three sisters and my dad has a sister and a brother, so I do have cousins. Unfortunately, I'm not as close with my cousins as I'd like to be, due to the fact that we only see each other for about two weeks a year. I have four cousins on my mom's side, we're all within 8 or so years of each other, so when we were younger we didn't really have any problems playing together and we generally have things in common to talk about when we see each other now. On my dad's side of the family, however, all my cousins are about 40 years old with kids. My dad is the youngest of his siblings and was also the latest to have kids, so I'm the young one on that side. As I've gotten older we've had more to talk about, but we still don't have much in common. I don't think we'll really have much to talk about at length until I'm engaged and then when I have kids.

My parents and I really don't have many traditions. I suppose you could say it's a tradition that we go out to New England twice a year. My mom's side of the family has a cottage on a camp ground on the Connecticut river and I've gone there every year since I was born. That's definitely a tradition, now that I think about it. It's my favorite place to be in the world. I'm going to be spending two weeks there this summer instead of the usual two and I can't wait to get there. I'm finally taking some friends out there and they're going to see the places I've been talking about for the past 15 or so years that we've known each other. It's not just my mom and her sisters that go there, it's the whole side of the family: cousins, second cousins, etc. Our family's been going to camp, as everyone calls it, for oh.... five or more generations now? There are a few families on the camp ground who go back about five generations. It's a really nice place and I love that the same families have known each other and spent time together for a week each year for over 125 years.

Anyway, sorry I couldn't write for longer, but it's time to go out to dinner now!