Cousins Dinner

Back in the day, when half of the family was attending BYU, various groups of cousins would get together semi-frequently for cousins dinner. Dinners included first and second cousins, spouses, occasionally roommates and friends, and were pot-luck in nature. As family members have spread throughout the country cousins dinners happen in various cities. We, the DC contingent, have never been too frequent in our dinnering, but our schedules finally worked such that we had a dinner today between sessions of conference. In attendance were one of my first cousins and four second cousins with assorted spouses and offspring. It was a grand time with grand food. There are a ton of pics to post, so here goes.

Lisa's sister, Marci, was in town with her husband, Matt, and son, Sam.

Marci & Lisa; Sam & Matt

Marci & Fam flew down from Boston for a few day's visit and are staying with Bryce, Lisa, and Sophie. Sophie is incredibly mobile and enjoyed crawling all around and attempting to attack her third cousin Clara, seen here attempting cannibalism on her dear father's hand.

Between Sam (above), Sophie, Clara, and the fourth offspring present, Nikolai (below), the play area was well used. Nikolai especially enjoyed the blocks, while Sam and Sophie constantly sought out my second cousin Kate's husband, Chris.

Now would probably be a good time to bring up food. In a first for me, I was the king of the grill, which included my first even preparing the charcoal. In the past, I've allowed the resident pyros to get the coals going (Bruce say what?) but this time I hadn't anyone around, so I stepped up and made some mighty nice coals if I do say so myself. We grilled these great burgers that Lisa brought, Hebrew National hot dogs, and Boca burgers for the vegetarians in the group. For sides, Kristin made her potato salad, which we ate for breakfast Sunday morning; Chris made this amazing roast corn salad that included mini mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes, and cilantro and was topped with balsamic vinegar, my dinner Sunday night; Mary, Nikolai's mom, made a green salad; and Jane, my first cousin, brought a fresh fruit salad. Oh, we need pics of Mary and Jane.

Steve played the role of tired father quite well! After a while Nikolai got into the act and you can see the results of that to the right. Steve enjoyed the reading area with Matt, who, at one point, had a sleeping child in arms.

Sam is one of the most photogenic children I've ever met. Just had to throw that in.

Other fun photos from the afternoon:

Clara jumping into a picture of Chris and Kate; the successful Chris and Kate photo

Clara and Mom; Clara hating it up with Dad

Kate and Marci (Kate be glad I didn't include the other one where you're making quite the face); Kate and Chris in discussion (for the record I wasn't the photographer, but whoever was kept taking pictures of Kate and Chris)

One thing you'll see in the picture below, but about which I have not blogged, is our recently rearranged middle floor. During the winter months it was too cold on the first floor (old home of the television and black couches) to have Clara without full-on outside winter clothes. So, a few weeks ago, with the help of Bruce, David, and Brigham, we moved everything to the middle floor. I think it looks rather nice.

This last picture is Psycho Kitty. He/she deserves his/her own post. I love me some Psycho Kitty.

Dinner was topped off with brown bottom cupcakes and peppermint cupcakes, all courtesy of Marci and Lisa. At the end of the evening, Sophie was on the stairs and went for the last of the food.I think the cousins dinner can be best summed up with the following: Food was eaten. Plates were cleared. A good time was had.

Sorry. It's conference time. Had to get my Monson on.