Beach Wedding

Yesterday Damion and I went, without our children, to my cousin Kristian's wedding! It was a great day. He and his gorgeous bride Sally, were married on Werri beach, which is about 2hours south of Sydney. The weather was perfect, the location was stunning, everyone looked beautiful and it was so great to be able to see all my cousins again.

My Nan and Pa have a great legacy. They have 7 children, 24 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren! (I hope I haven't left anyone out) So it is a rare occasion to get a big group of us altogether! Even though I don't get to see them all as often as I would like, when we are together there is alot of love and good feelings. Damion and I always leave feeling lucky to have such a great extended family.

Seeing my cousins yesterday brought back so many great memories. My grandparents live at Gerroa, and alot of my cousins live in Gerringong which is the next town. Growing up we would often come down for holidays and my dads sister with her 7 boys would be there also. We all had a great time together going to the beach, riding our bikes around spending all of our holiday money at the  local shop and exploring the rock pools. Our favourite thing of all however, was to write notes to nan and pa's neighbour the witch!!  Getting the guts to creep up and slide the note under the front door of the vacant holiday house scared us half to death!! We had to be extra sly because if our parents knew what we were up to we would be in HUGE trouble!! We loved to tell stories about the Witch, and freak each other out!! I was the only girl cousin for alot of the years, but the boys were always lovely to me and included me in all the things they did! Being the only girls meant Corinne and I were Pa's favourite!!

The speeches yesterday and at any wedding are always the highlight of the day. There are always lots of laughs and good feelings in wedding speeches! Kristian's speech was really lovely, he made special mention of the grandparents there, Nan and Pa and Sally's grandparents, and his little Niece Layla saying that the oldest and  youngest are the most important at any family event, which is so true!! He also spoke of my Uncle Paul who recently died of Cancer, and is missed every day, especially yesterday! Being with family whether it is immediate or extended is really special, knowing you are all connected to each other creates a real feeling of unity, support and love! I don't know how much longer my Pa will be with us, that makes me sad. I do know however, that the family he and nan have created will continue to go on forever!