Cousins, Christmas, and cows.

Disclaimer: I really don't have much to say about cows, but I really like alliterations , and there are cows in my yard.
And so our adventures continue.  We spent two weeks in Oregon and it was absolutely wonderful.  I am so incredibly thankful that we were able to see everyone and spend more time than we had originally planned. 
One wonderful thing about staying longer was the chance to see my dad's cousin Angela and her family.  Jesse and my mom and I met them at crossroads, and then daddy met us there, Cristin and Austin came, and then her husband Dan showed up after work, and it ended up being a family reunion where we shocked Angela by dropping all the latest news on her at once.  No, nobody is having babies.  Not that much news.  Just marriages and moves and stuff like that.  We don't see them enough, and everytime we do, we start the debate about how we are all related, and which of us are second cousins, and how many times removed we are...we finally decided that daddy and Angela are first cousins, Angela and I are first cousins once removed, Sophie (Angela's daughter) and I are second cousins, and when we have children, my kids and Sophie will be second cousins once removed, and our children will be third cousins.  Now it's on the internet as a reference for all future confusing conversations!  There has got to be an easier way to figure that stuff out.  But I digress...
On the 20th we went down to Mapleton and spent the day at Jesse's grandma Karen and grandpa Ed's house, with a side of the family that I have spent little to no time with.  That made it a little bit of a long day...hanging out with people you don't know during their Christmas is always awkward, even if you are technically family.  But we drove down the road to see the waterfall and it was beautiful.  I felt like my father, so excited to see moss, and mist, and climb around on rocks, and take pictures of trees.  I did slip and almost die once, but that's all in a day's work.
Frank and Vee were spending the night, so we got to cram in the back of Austin (Jesse's cousin)'s mustang that is having problems keeping the headlights on and sometimes over heats.  Nothing new.  I slept most of the way home, and woke up in a parking lot in Woodburn where we had stopped because apparently the throttle was sticking, and then in attempts to fix it, it was flooded.  So we ended up sitting there for an hour and getting home around 1 am, to the best of my memory.  That made two nights in a row that I was out past midnight, and this old lady doesn't handle that very well.
But next morning up we got and to church did trot, because the Chris Cline family was expected sometime after lunch.  After lunch turned into four or five, which became six or six thirty, and it ended up being sometime around 7:30 before they finally arrived.  But absence makes the heart grow fonder, and anticipation leads to restlessness, and restlessness leads to decisions to bake cheesy garlic onion bread, and that leads to another little piece of heaven, with all 23 of us gorging ourselves on spaghetti and bread and thoroughly enjoying everything about our family.  Especially our ability to make awesome food.
We also got to meet our youngest cousin, Micaiah.  He is about a month and a half old and looks exactly like every other Chris Cline baby.  Cousins are like no one else.  I miss being close to my cousins, and wish that I could be sure that my children will have close relationships with their cousins.  They are the only people that truly understand your craziness, without having to go through the trials of siblingship.  They are the only people that can stand in your living room, and follow a conversation on thunderwear (underwear with holsters in them), moving from one's views on heaven, to plans to act in commercials, to visions of shooting competitions...all in matching Cline Family Thunderwear and orange hats.
It brings me so much happiness, many times over, to see us all growing up, moving away, starting our own lives, being driven by the army, dreams of the coast guard, and little towns in Texas, and to all come together and still be just as close as we were when we were all under three feet tall.
Our trip back to Oregon, as my dear friend Rae pointed out to me, will not make being away from family any easier, but it was amazing, and it was something for me to look back on and know that 2000 miles will never be enough to separate us from the people that mean the most.