Much of Our Extended Family Assembles For Rare Get-together

Two of my first cousins, Jim and Joel Narva, and I grew up more as brothers than cousins. Our moms were sisters who were very close, and our families lived either above, below, or adjacent to each other until we were all in or through high school.

Our families assembled as possible yesterday at Joel and Sandra’s beautiful home near Point-No-Point in north Kitsap for a holiday get-together. Of course we had to take a photo (below).

Left to right are Gregg, Jim, Elaine, Kay, Hayley, Aubrey, Kay Lynne, Talli, Joel, Sandra, Lindsey, Andy, Kelli, this old man, Jamie, baby Nathan and Doug. Who’s who in the photo are as follows: Kay is Jim’s wife, Sandra is Joel’s wife, Kelli and Lindsey are Joel and Sandra’s daughters, Andy is Kelli’s husband, Gregg and Doug are Kay Lynne’s and my sons, Elaine is Gregg’s wife and Jamie is Doug’s wife, and Talli, Hayley and Aubrey are Gregg and Elaine’s daughters, and baby Nathan is Doug and Jamie’s son. Jim and Kay’s sons Mike and Andrew and Mike’s significant other, Ginny, were not able to be with us this time.

Btw, any cousins or relatives out there that might want to see the photo larger, just drop me an email and I'll send the entire file to you for enlarging (full file wouldn't upload to the blog for some reason).

Jim, Joel and I have at least seven other first cousins, all on our moms’ side, who are spread out across the country. Linda, who lives here in Washington and is nearest to us, wanted to be with us yesterday, but was unable to make it. What a gathering it would be to have all the cousins and their families get together some day. Our moms used to call a gathering like that a “hullabaloo”.