Hi Eli and Lily,
Your grammy made this beautiful website for you guys, and I just had to check it out. I’m so glad she made it, because
a lot of us wanted to be able to let you know what an awesome family you have in the Bahamas. Of course, you do not know me, but I’m, Renee’, your aunty Tani’s favorite cousin and your grammy’s
favorite niece. (At least that’s what I tell myself:-)).
Eli, when you were born, I was excited to know that my son, Mark, was going to have a cousin so close in age. You are 2 months older than Mark, and I just knew that even though you would not get to see each other often, you were gonna be best buddies. My oldest son, Luke, is good buddies with Jesse,
and they only see each other once or twice a year. With the Lord’s help, you may one day be best buddies with Mark, Matthew and Caelen in the near future. Those
three love to spend time with each other.
In a few weeks, Mark will be playing baseball in Freeport where your dad lives. We definitely will be getting together. I hope it doesn’t make your dad too sad, because Mark will probably remind him of you because you guys are the same age. I know your dad thinks about you and loves you so much.
You
have the coolest family. When I was growing up, almost every weekend I would beg my mom to let me sleep by Aunty Shirley and Uncle Peter. I loved being there. Tani was and still is my favorite cousin, and I wanted to spend all my time with her. However, you know who kept my company when I would sleep up? – your daddy. He was so much fun. Tani liked to read, and so, that left me with a lot of time just begging for her to play with me. That’s
when Troy would step in. Troy made everything so fun. He would play board games with me and take me outside to ride his bike.
Once Troy and I went outside, Tani was more than happy to drop the books. Since there were only 2 bikes, Troy would have me sit on the handle bars while he rode the bike.
They lived on a little hill, so we would go flying down that hill. One day, I got the biggest “strawberry” on my knee and elbow. I hollered so much
that day. Troy and Tani tried so hard to make me stop crying. (I don’t think they wanted Uncle Peter to find out that Troy was riding with me on the handle bars). They finally gave up and took me to Rosalind, their housekeeper, to clean me up. I think that was the day that Rosalind nicked-named me “Crying Time.” To this day she calls me that. All that drama didn’t stop me from wanting to spend every spare minute at their house. Troy would also take
Tani and me to a pool of a friend. We would have the best time ever. I thought it was so cool to have these older cousins spend time with me. (My other older cousins thought I was too babyish to be around, so that made Troy and Tani even more special). Oh, another reason that I loved to be at their house is that they always had ice-cream
:-).
Lily, we never got to meet you, but we have seen a few pictures. We hope one day to meet you in person. Sadly, I haven’t seen
a very recent picture, so I don’t know what you guys look like right now. Kids’ features change so quickly, so you might look a lot different than what I have in my mind.
I wish you were here. When I think about you, I picture my niece, Lauren, when she was your age. I could see you playing with all your girl cousins - as a matter-of-fact,
your boy cousins too. In this family, when we get together we make the most of it, so being a girl or a boy doesn’t really matter much. I could see you and Eli
running around getting hot and sweaty with your cheeks red as fire. I think you would probably be great friends with Kaitlyn and Alexis, but you would also have a blast with Mark and Matthew. They play so hard when they get together that no one wants to sit next to them on the ride home, because they are so sweaty. However, when we meet by your grammy, we don’t have to worry
about sweat because all their fun is centered around the pool. To be honest, I’m older now, so I much prefer to be inside where I don’t have to hear the noise, because there usually is a lot of it :-).
I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there for now. I’ll let you know if Mark wins his baseball game, and I’ll give your daddy the biggest hug from you guys :-).
We love you and miss you so, so much.
Love,
Aunty Renee’