::cute cousins::

One of the many reasons that we love to visit Utah is because Max gets to spend time with his cousins. Cousins were (and are) super important to Kris and I growing up. We'd like Max to have the same close relationships with his that we had with ours.

Max and Scooter (Cammon & Lorri's little guy) don't have a ton in common yet, but I think they enjoyed hanging out together a bit.
Max and Parker (Kari's oldest), however, have quite a bit in common. In fact, so much in common that we weren't sure they were going to have any fun together at all this time.

They both seem to think they're the boss of the world. As soon as they started to try to play together it was evident that neither one was going to listen to the other. One yelled, another grabbed stuff. One pulled another's shirt. One came running up to us and said "so and so won't OBEY me!"

But the good news is, they worked things out after a bit and then had a really great time playing together.

This is so good for Max because being currently an only child, he doesn't have to compromise too much. It's different with friends. Cousins are as close to sibilingish relationship as you can get I think.

Now KC (Kari's youngest currently) has a completely different attitude than either Max or Parker. He's the kind of guy that just goes with the flow. He's a sweet little guy for sure.

He's pretty shy, and up until this visit I really hadn't gotten him to warm up to me at all. Happily, we got along well this visit and I even got a couple of hugs!

KC really loves his Grandpa though.

A lot.

So cute!

Anyway, it's really funny to see the differences in personality between the cousins. There are myriad.
Like Parker really likes to build stuff. Give him tinkertoys or lincoln logs or constructs and he's a happy man. Max wouldn't know what to do with a lincoln log if it bit him on the rear end. Building things does pretty much nothing for him.
This was evident because Parker built this cool gadget when they were playing.

And this cool gadget.

I told Max to go and make one really quick so that I could take pictures of them together with their gadgets.
Parker had to make one for him. It was pretty funny.

But that's why we have different talents and abilities, right? So we can share the love and take care of each other!

Just look at these goofballs.

They couldn't be cuter. Cousins are great, even if they do make you compromise sometimes!