Jason's paternal grandmother passed this week at the impressive age of 96. Unfortunately Grandma suffered from dementia the last decade so I know very little about her and I met/saw her twice. I stayed at her house in Dayton, OH as Jason and I took a road trip to Indiana to see his mom's family; her house had some retro 70's shag carpet upstairs. The other memory I have of her is seeing her a year or two later with Jason's cousin, Ann Marie, and her young son, Jack. And since Jason doesn't remember anything from the first 15 years of his life, I got nothing else. (I am slightly kidding... relax)
Virginia "Jean" Hollencamp is the other grandmother that our Evie is named after. I don't think she even understood that we did that. It's interesting that the two grandmothers died within 6 months of each other.
Sadly, we do not see Jason's Hollencamp aunts, uncles, and cousins as much as I think we should. Most of them live in Illinois and Ohio, so it makes it difficult to get together for holidays. After visiting with his cousins and their kids, I am determined to make more of an effort to get together with them before another decade passes!
Just look at this 2nd cousin cuteness:
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| 2nd Cousins! Braylen~Heidi~Jack~Grace~Luke~Evie |
I have heard many stories about Jason and Jen's cousin Ann Marie. In fact, I was just looking through a photo album Jen created as a tween a few weeks ago at Mema's house that had thinking and talking bubbles inspired by Ann Marie. It was clear in the pictures of the Hollencamp cousins from the 90's that Jen adored Ann Marie and Jason liked his "cool" cousin Daniel.
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| Hollencamp cousins Jason~Daniel~Rich~Bobby~Jen~Ann Marie |
It doesn't surprise me that Ann Marie has two kids just as outgoing and sweet as her. Grace and Jack were a huge blessing to us; they were eager to play with our kids as soon as they saw them. This was the first time Evie and Braylen met the Hollencamp family. They quickly warmed up and loved their new "friends"
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| Evie and Grace played some kind of game with the goldfish. Evie had Grace wrapped around her little fingers in no time. |
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| Fast friends |
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| Jack encouraged Luke and Braylen to tackle him. Ann Marie already told us Jack can fly by himself. How soon can he come?! |
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| Look at that love for his little cousins |
Jack will be 12 years old this month. Yeah, he was probably younger than Braylen the last time I saw him. I wasn't kidding that it has been a decade!
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| sweet blonds |
We were sad to say good-bye to Grace and Jack. A visit to Chicago is definitely going to happen in the next year or two. Hooray for cousins!
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| Going in for a good-bye kiss xx |
RIP Virginia S. Hollencamp (Sept 22, 1918 - March 6, 2015)
2 comments:
Family is all about kids interactions.
My kids had a great time! We would love to get together any time! My kids enjoyed spending time with your kids and being the older ones of the group. It was great for them to be able to put faces with names. You have to post your pictures when you have a chance. Grace actually took pictures of the kids to school following day so she could so everyone her "new cousins"!
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