I am writing this from a hotel room in Ann Arbor after 15 hours in the front seat of a rented Chrysler Pacifica minivan so that my boys and I could take our annual 4^th of July trek for some fun with Kyle’s cousins.  We drive, not to hold our children hostage as they may tell you, but to MAKE FAMILY MEMORIES.  We get here by way of North Dakota to Minnesota to Wisconsin to Illinois to Indiana to Michigan, and one of the FAMILY MEMORIES we make is not allowing anyone to stop to pee until we get from Illinois to Michigan because we are only in Indiana for 40 minutes and the gas stations along those 40 miles are, as my eight-year-old would say, sus.

Another way we MAKE FAMILY MEMORIES is by forcing the kids to get out of the car and look at things.  For example, this trip we made them go to a candy story and put their toes in the sand on the shore of one of the Great Lakes.  Eight waded in the water up to his shorts, jumped over the waves, made a tiny sandcastle, and then suggested we fly to Michigan next year.

“We’re making family memories,” I told him.

“We can make family memories in the airport,” he said.

Part of our annual memorymaking is the children requesting we turn our two-day Interstate travel into a one-day flight, not because they don’t RELISH quality time with their adoring, awesome parents, but because they are antsy in their pantsies to see their cousins.

Let me see if I can explain this cousin situation simply.  Kyle comes from a very large family; he has 36 first cousins.  Only one set of cousins lives in the United States (although I guess two, if you count us) and every summer of Kyle’s childhood his auntie and uncle would load the minivan and drive their five kids up to Saskatchewan for some Canadian carousing.  Of those five O.G. American cousins, four of them live within five miles of each other today.  Those cousins now have adult/nearly-adult children, and one of those children has children of her own – and those kids are the same age as my kids.

If you are the type of person who is good at figuring out lineage, let me know how these kids – Kyle’s third cousins plus his own offspring – are related to one another.  I’m pretty sure there’s a handful of “once-removeds” in there somewhere.  It doesn’t really matter, though, because as far as these babes are concerned, they are cousins and the rest of us are their barriers to fun.

We pulled into the Michigan cousins’ house early on Monday morning (we actually arrived in Michigan at 10:30 the previous evening and ruined our boys’ existences by making them SLEEP FIRST instead of going straight there), and all of the children were waiting in the driveway…where they, too, may have been waiting since 10:30 pm.  Eleven – who, by the time you read this, will be Twelve – had the door open before the car rolled to a stop.

“S’up,” his twelve-year-old cousin said.

“Balls,” Twelve replied, as one would to a lifelong favorite person whom they haven’t seen in a year.  Five seconds later, they were playing in the pool.

Eight couldn’t jump out of the still-moving minivan because he was in the third row, so he had to wait an interminable amount of time to attack his grouping of cousins, ages 10, 9, and 8.

“Can we have a sleepover?”  Seven asked as we hugged them hello.

“How about we start with breakfast?”  Kyle asked.

“We don’t need breakfast.  Also, we are the Wonder Cousins,” Nine announced.

“Yes, the Wonder Cousins,” Eight agreed, having never heard that phrase prior to that moment.

The Wonder Cousins moved as a pack for the rest of the day.  They swam in the pool.  They ate ice cream.  They told on their older brothers.  They slid down the playset slide.  They climbed up the playset slide.  They got in a fight when it came time for the Wonder Cousins to identify their imaginary powers, and then made up when it became apparent that Eight was unable to conjure neither fire nor lava.

By the time the evening’s fireworks rolled around, the Wonder Cousins had formed a handful of sub-groups with identifiers such as “The Injured Team” (two of them had scraped their toes) and “The Cupcake Team” (unclear as they all ate cupcakes).

Kyle’s cousin, their grandma, had bought them matching Sonic the Hedgehog hooded onesie jammies, and so the Sonic-clad Wonder Cousins climbed into their great-grandfather’s truck bed to prepare for the fireworks.  Eight expressed his trepidation; his annual memorymaking to this point included hiding in the house during fireworks, as the noise had always scared him.

“We’ll protect you,” the Wonder Cousins said, wrapping their fuzzy blue arms around him.

He made it through two fireworks before he retreated to the living room to watch a movie.  The Wonder Cousins followed.

“He’s okay; you don’t need to sit with him,” I told them.  “You stay outside and watch the show.”

“We’ll go back and forth,” they said.

And that’s what they did.  One kid would come out, and another would go in.  Eight was never alone for even a moment.

That night in the hotel, I tried to peel the Sonic pajamas off of a half-asleep Eight.

“No, stop, I need to wear these!”  He said, waking up slightly.  “How will they know I’m their cousin otherwise?”

“I have a feeling they will remember,” I said, as I tucked him in.

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The photo above is of the little Wonder Cousins.

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Emma and Sylvie Winje celebrated the holiday by performing a patriotic concert for the residents of Fargo’s Good Samaritan Society. (Fargo Forum)

Grand Forks’ Gracie Lian, Amber Flynn, and Kate Preszler have won a $2,000 grant to beautify the community with additions such as a water bottle filling station, more lights, bike racks, and picnic tables, and planted fruit trees. (Grand Forks Herald)

Bismarck’s Jes Juma rolled up her sleeves in order to compete on Joanna Gaines’ “Silos Baking Competition.” (KFYR TV)

Kianga and Amani, the two female giraffes at the Roosevelt Park Zoo, got to meet their potential suitor – a male named Kioni. (KX Net)

I don’t usually post about businesses on here because they would take over the news, but I think this one is worthy of a mention – 12-year-old Alex Lattergrass’ “Alex’s Mowing Co.” is making hay. (Valley News Live)

Killdeer’s rodeo just celebrated its 100th birthday. (KFYR TV)

Speaking of big numbers, Walhalla – the second-oldest town in North Dakota after Pembina – is 175 years old. (Grand Forks Herald)

Since we’re on the topic birthdays, Wishek marked its 125th with a wagon train. (KX Net)

Valley City State University’s enrollment has grown by 21% over the past ten years, and it has now been rated one of the Best Colleges in America. (Valley City State University)

Speaking of Valley City, Dave Carlsrud has been inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame. (News Dakota)

Myles Montplaisir, the You Betcha Guy, is building big in Horace. (Fargo Forum)

As a reminder, I’ll be appearing on North Dakota Today on Monday mornings. Tune in, and send me the people and stories that make you go, “Oh, for nice” (and if you have already sent me stories – THANK YOU!).

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