Family Reunion

It seems like everyone always has stories from family reunions.  Until this last week, I had never been to one.  Turns out they’re pretty great.

My immediate and closely extended* family is small.  On my mom’s side I have two first cousins, two aunts, two uncles, and two grandparents, all of whom I love dearly.  For my mom however, she has quite a few aunts, uncles, and cousins, and the tree just keeps extending and branching the farther you go back.  So it was pretty cool to meet all those people whom I had only ever heard about in stories or whose existence I didn’t know about at all**.

I love Alaska; I love everything about it there.  Growing up in Alaska has been a wonderful experience, and although I do not have a plan for my life at present I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself back there 5 or 10 years from now.  I do not however, love being so far away from family.  I get to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about every other year, which is fantastic considering the distance between us.  As for the rest of the family, my parents’ aunts and uncles, my second cousins, and everyone else who is in the family by some relation or another, most of them I’ve never met.  Of the 50 some people who showed up this weekend, I only knew 8 prior to the reunion.

My family tree***
(I'm somewhere over on the left)

*Oxymoron? (closely extended… as to mean my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and first cousins)

**I have a cousin named Emily who is only a couple years older than me!

***I also love how it keeps growing every year!