Cousins Graduation

There were a lot of kids born in our family in 2004, and they are all graduating from high school this year! All three of Dave's sisters were pregnant at the same time, with all three of the babies being born between February 10-March 8. In addition to that, 3 cousins were also pregnant, and those babies came between April and May. Fast forward 18 years, and here we are! From left to right we have Daleigh, McKenzie, Aiden, Sydney, Talon, and Matt. 

Here are all of those kids on their first birthday.

...and with their moms. Sadly, McKenzie (second from the left) lost her mom a few years ago. Both of the two on the left (Daleigh and McKenzie) are the grand daughters of Claire's cousin Mickey. I'm not sure what the relation is, but let's just call them all cousins. 

We also had some girlfriends there, as well as Tina's Italian foreign exchange student.  Josh's girlfriend is a senior as well, and so is Matt's (her mom is a good friend of mine from work). Kathy and Joe hosted a fantastic graduation party for all these awesome kids. 

Congrats to Grandma and Grandpa as well. They offered so much support to these kids, as well as all the rest. Claire had a huge hand in raising these kids while their parents worked. There were days when she had all three (four actually, including Josh) of these babies. Essentially, they were triplets, born within a month of each other. 

While we were at this party, I got to thinking about all the graduates we are going to have in the next few years. I doubt any of them will get a party quite like this, but we will have one person from our immediate family graduating every year between now and 2027. Hailey is next, then Tyler in 2024, Braden in 2025, Lacy in 2026 and Ava in 2027. Crazy, right?! 

Congratulations to all of the graduates. Go out there and make a difference in our world! We're all counting on you.