Acid Free Paper!

So I went to family reunion today... and was pretty much blown out of my mind.

First off... I had like, 6th cousins there. Weird. And apparently the Livingston family is run like a business. Actually, it is pretty much a business. There are 9 board members, (we voted in three today,) and they organize family reunions, family history and geneology, have quarterly meetings, count minutes, take donations... basically they go the whole nine yards. After a family meeting where we toured the family website, we had two guest speakers, (if I'd known what I was getting into I wouldn't have shown up till the very end) - the first speaker, (I didn't listen to the second one) talked about family records, writing histories, and preserving photos. He got very excited about how important acid free paper is. Apparently everything is bad for photos except acid free paper. You shouldn't display them, write on them, cut them, touch them, have them in color, or look at them. You should print them in black on white on acid free paper, and store them. Or you can back them up on lots of CD's and copy them onto multiple computers. Go figure.

Needless to say, I slept through most of the 'meeting.'

My cousins finally showed though and we had a blast. We jumped outside on the blow up slide and jump house, learned how to do some scottish dancing, and ate ice-cream. Basically Stephanie and I are the best scottish dancers ever! I wish everyone could have seen our mad sliding skills.

So I guess the speech about acid free paper was worth the last half of the reunion.... right? :) I love my cousins. They are so much fun to be around!

President's Day weekend with the Cooks

Skiing was a blast. And apparently I caught on quickly :D

My grandpa and aunt helped teach me how, and I spent saturday afternoon on the bunny hill at Beaver. I definitely want to go again. Maybe if I get lucky I can find someone who is about at my same level to party on the little slopes with me.

Saturday night I went swimming, and walked back to the place we were staying wet, in the cold at 11... which is probably a contributing factor to the nasty cough I've been fighting for the past 24 hours.
But I had fun, so who cares?

Last night I played Cranium with my cousins, we joked and laughed and came up with more dumb inside jokes that no one else would probably ever think is funny. Movies, tickling, food, no responsibilities, laughter... I slipped back into being a little kid again, and coming back to real life almost makes me want to cry.

I love my crazy, chaotic, hairbrained, wonderful Cook relatives. I am extremely proud to be a member of the family. But the whole time I was there, I had this gut wrenching feeling that it's never going to be the same again. Which isn't a bad thing, but part of me wants it to stay the same so badly. Jonathan will leave for his mission soon, and Spencer will go soon after that. Natalie, Steph and I won't know who to torment, and who knows what will happen with the boy situation. Natalie's missionary get's back this summer... and if I meet someone... not to mention Steph. Everything is just going to change. And it'll never be the same again.

I know everything will still be fun. I'll still love my family. We'll still have stupid inside jokes that no one thinks are funny except us. But saying goodbye to old times and ways is still difficult.