M.F.T. #10: me & my cousins.

My Favorite Favorite Thing # 10 is not a thing at all but 2 awesome members of my family who I have been missing a lot recently now that I no longer live in the same city/in their spare bedroom anymore and although I've only been gone for 2 weeks, I feel its been an eternity since I've hugged my cousin's prego belly. Jenn + Lori are my (second) cousins and they are ~10 years older than me... which is the perfect distance a part to consistently look up to someone my entire life. We were always their "little cousins" growing up and I couldn't wait to come home for Christmas/the lake in the summer to see them! When they were teenagers, I thought they were the coolest girls ever with their stylish clothes + ALL their boyfriends! I couldn't wait to turn 16 + listen to Roxette and go on dates in my own little red sports car. Then, they hit their twenties and they hit a new level of cool. I can remember getting to stay the night with Jenn while she was in college and I thought it was soooo cool that she lived with her 4 best friends ... her room made out of sheets in the basement that she drew the short straw for! It was the same night as a going away dinner with all her friends and I got to come along!! Their fashion and conversation made me feel like I had just entered a real life episode of Sex & the City! They drank cosmos; they went to toga parties; they highlighted their hair! Now that they are in their thirties, they are cooler than ever with great careers and beautiful children! I am finally at an age where I still aspire to be where they are in 10 years but also can call them close friends, too. Lori is a very gifted French immersion teacher and Jenn is an incredible mompreneur who has many "jobs" including a fabulous eco-friendly website; purchase her awesome products here! I had saved part of this as a draft from awhile back and I think I was waiting for the perfect picture to accompany this post before I published it but I never got one of the 3 of us together so I stole these pictures off Jenn's photography blog: jennaphotoland (Did I mention she is an incredible photographer, too?). Living in Winnipeg, they helped me through so much and really taught me the value of living close to family, something I had never known before this past year. I got to spend lots of quality time with L & J and am really glad I got the time to get to know their adorable daughters... I hope I get to make the same kind of memories with Sadie & Lily, "my little cousins!"