Cousins Bathtime

For those of you new to the blog, that would be all, I will try and keep my posts in courier (Jared).


So one of my favorite memories as a child were weekends with my grandparents.  They would take "the four boys" JJ, Jon, Jordan, and myself to a hotel for the weekend.  I remember that we thought it was the most amazing thing ever.  The weekend was generally consisting of travel on friday night.  Saturday we would wake up and swim all day with some sort of big tadoo about dinner later on.  Papa (Bob, my dad's dad who is no longer with us) would always give us the talk.  The talk included instruction on how to behave.  After dinner obviously bed.  Sunday always included a search for a suitable church.  It was the inability of finding a suitable church that led to the bedside Baptist session that I actually accepted Christ, but more on that later.


It was these weekends that always stuck with me.  Us boys would often get some quarters for the arcade but even in the absence of an arcade a good time was had by all.  Throughout my childhood the overwhelming memories of these weekends was practically flawless.  The evening we beat the Ninja Turtles arcade game will live on in my mind as one of the crowning achievements of my childhood.


There is a picture we have that, in my mind, symbolizes these bonding experiences and the quality relationships built there.  It is a picture that will also live on in infamy as it is relatively risque.  The picture is the four boys in a bathtub.  JJ was probably about 5 with the rest of us following at 4, 3, and 2 ish.  Jon was standing up so the picture usually has a little piece of sticky note to maintain modesty.  This picture has brought laughs and fond memories countless times.


Tonight my "Sweet little Niece" as I call her and Jaden had cousin bath time.  My wonderful wife was thoughtful enough to capture this moment in a photo (Jordan and I were getting some groceries and diapers, allstars I know).  The moment I saw the picture I was blasted back in time.  Moved to the point that is just shy of tears I was so thankful for those weekends and was hoping that by the grace of God my dear son and SLN Jadie might have a similar relationship.  Obviously the baths won't continue forever but with God's blessing they might be able to share the love that I have for my fantastic brother and wonderful cousins.  Ali and Jordy's #2 Eiley will obviously be a part of that experience and hopefully more to come at some point in time but for now the cousins bathtime picture is enough to bring joy to this guy.


Thanks for taking the time to share with my memory and I hope that you can show how thankful you are to someone you care for.