My Old Kentucky Home

A few days ago, george called me & I answered the phone by saying, "I'm in Kentucky!" Tim was given a few days off of work before Easter & he said he wanted to spend those days meeting the rest of my family. My Uncle Buster & Aunt Fay were more than happy to put us up in their guest room, so off we went. Luckily, a lot of other family members chose that weekend to visit, so we had a pseudo family reunion going on. We spent the days driving around, enjoying the countryside, & occasionally stopping by someone's house to see varous family members. It was probably a bit overwhelming for Tim (19 people made it to Easter lunch!), but he managed very well. Surprisingly, I ended up meeting some new family members, too - most notably, 2 month old Ava Nichole.

I wish I weren't so self-conscious about taking photos of human beings. I really really need to get over this. If you visit my aunt & uncle's house, you'll see that their walls are COVERED with photos of family members, so I'm sure they'd be all-too-happy to pose for me, but I get shy. Bah. Fortunately, everyone expects you to take pictures of babies, so I got a number of pics of Ava.

Ava is my cousin Doug's granddaughter. Does that make her my third cousin? Second cousin once removed? Great-grand cousin? I don't know. I just know she's cute & looks just like her daddy, Mike.

Here's a photo of Ava with her mom, ReAnna, a fairly new member of the family, too, and a really great addition to the group.

I wish I'd had more time to talk to ReAnna. She seems like such a kick-ass woman. Smart, quick, funny. It takes a very special person to match up to my second cousin, Mike, and she definitely fits the bill.

Here's Ava in the arms of my second cousin Samantha as my Aunt Fay looks on.

We haven't seen Sammy since our wedding when she was still a baby (she's 4 now), so it was great to see how much she has grown. She is SUCH a girly-girl! And like many girls in our family, Sammy took a real shine to Tim. When she was sorting through her Easter candy in the kitchen, she took a chocolate egg & walked off to the living room & gave it to Tim. This is big because she LOVES chocolate and because she didn't give any of her Easter candy to anybody else - not even her beloved grandma.

Speaking of whom, can you believe my Aunt Fay is a great grandmother? How did that happen? Actually, don't answer that.


Lastly, here's a group shot of the whole group minus Tim and my cousin, David, who were busy wrangling cameras.

Front row from left: Uncle Buster (aka George), Aunt Fay (aka Orveda), my second cousin Samantha (covering her face), Janine (Aunt Fay's sister-in-law)
Standing from left: Cousin Donna, Cousin Doug, Ava, my second cousin Mike (Doug's son), Mike's wife ReAnna, Cousin David's wife Cassie, Dale (Aunt Fay's nephew), Laura (Dale's wife), Elaine (Doug's girlfriend), my second cousin Mandi (Doug's daughter), me, Adam (Mandi's fiance), and older Dale (Janine's husband).