I have a lot of cousins

 My cousins, John Thompsen and his husband Julian , and Susan Thompsen West, John's sister, were here-  for a nice visit.    They were here to attend a wedding- their nephew- son of their brother Jim Thompsen.    Since Jim and his wife, Karen were the parents of the groom, they did not stay here.  

We did have a chance to visit with the three sibling, cousins.  Their father was my father's younger brother.   It's so funny to share genes with the people and also share memories.  We have not seen then very often, and usually not for a long time.  But we have all known each other all of our lives.  

Thompsen cousins:  Carol, Nancy (me) John, Susan and Jim

My father was one of five sons. My mother was also one of five, three sons and two daughters.   In my dad's family there were:

Erling and Katherine who had two sons and a daughter.   

Ralph and Grace who had 3 daughters

Theodore (Ted) & Ruth- my parents, who had two daughters and one son

Norris and Alice (parents of Susan, John and Jim)- a daughter and two sons

Jim and Francelle  had two daughters/

On my dad's side- the Thompsens, there were 14 grandchildren.  That means 10 cousins for my sister, brother and myself.

The five Thompsen sons died in the same order they were born:

My mom's family name was Rivers.  

George & Eunice had two sons and one daughter

Ruth & Ted (my parents) had two daughters and one son

John (Bud) and Joyce had two daughters

Norman and Joanne had two daughters and one son

Geraldine and John had five children, four daughters and one son.

George, Ruth & Norman are dead.

On my mom's side there were 15 grandchildren, so I have 12 cousins on the Rivers side.

So, all together I have 22 first cousins.    All but two of my first cousins have their own children.

And so it goes.  

Nick, who is interested in genealogy, gets overwhelmed by my family.  He had three cousins who he never really got to know, and one of them is dead.   

My own children don't have many cousins.  Jim and Tom who were 8 and 10 years old when I had my first baby.   Kathy who is an only child and is a few months younger than Morgan.    Molly, another only child, who is three weeks older than Austin.    

We have 5 adult children.  We don't have any grandchildren and I don't know if we ever will.    What I grew up with, which seemed "normal" is not the normal I expected.  But life is good.   

We took this picture last year, but it's still a great picture. 
We refer to is as our "radish anniversary"