On my Dad’s side of the family my sister and I are the youngest of all the first cousins. My Dad was the youngest “accident” in his family so all his Brothers and Sisters had a big head start having kids. So growing up I either followed around my cousin Lauren who was the next closest in age to me but still old enough to be sooooo cool and probably totally annoyed with her “shaddow” One of my cousins, Bethany has 2 kids, Morgan, 17 and Mason, 8? I think he’s 8? Some how with all the kids in our family Bethany, her kids, and I all look related. Everyone else in our family looks completely different! It’s wierd! We’re the only tall blondes in our family??
When I’d have volleyball tournaments in San Diego Bethany would bring Morgan down to watch them. She was the cutest little toe head you’ve ever seen! Then along came her brother Mason. Now he wasn’t about to be his sister’s shaddow so he went ahead and made sure he needed these super cute glasses so he was not only a toe head, blue eyed cutie pie but he slightly resembled the little boy from Jerry McGuire!
Luckily we’ve all stayed in contact though our families no longer gather for the holidays. I’ve had the privilage of watching Morgan swim and play water polo over the years. She basically dominated in both! She has awards stacked on awards and medals and more varsity patches than any athlete I’ve ever seen! She just graduated from Vahala High School and was recruited by the UCLA rowing team! She’s never rowed a day in her life! But they save a couple, and by a couple I mean 2 spots for amazing swimmers that they feel they can train to row. Morgan was one of them! So she will be leaving San Diego and attending UCLA this fall!!! Leaving everyone in her family proud and envious of the journey she has ahead of her!!!
I have been trying to find a way to make it down to San Diego to take Morgan’s senior pictures. But between the birth of my daughter, moving, and well basically being a Mom of 2 little ones, the trip never happened. Unfortunately my Grandpa (from another family) passed away and I flew down to San Diego for the funeral this past weekend. My cousin Bethany and her Husband Page generously opened their home to me and lent me their car so I could get around! Gotta love family! Always there when you need them! I stayed through Sunday so I had some extra time to spend with them. I took the kids to what appeared to be an abandoned building across from their house for some pictures. Turns out it’s a biker club house! LOL!…oops! Some bare chested, tatted up man came outside asking us what we were doing! He was greeted by three blonde softies whos voices turned squeeky…”just taking pictures sorry! bye!” I am sad I didn’t get to take Morgan’s senior pictures but I had so much fun snapping a few of her and Mason just for fun! I wanted to take them down to the beach later that night to get some sunset sillouette pictures. But as we drove closer to the coast we could see the thick fog rolling in! So we made the best of it!!

not really my best sillouettes but not too bad for thick, yucky fog!