Year Three!
We just completed year three of our annual Aldous Cousin Camp. It is a magical/exhausting (magically exhausting?) week that consists of 32 people, 16 kids that are 14 years - 3 months old. Kyle's vision for Cousin Camp came out of Covid times — looking for a deeper connection with family and recognizing the value in these precious relationships. None of the siblings live close to one another, so the opportunity to spend time together is few and far between.
How does it work?
Kyle is the oldest of six kids, and once a year, everyone gathers together in Texas at Candy Grandma and Grandpa's house. We all stay at the house together for a week, minus his sister who is nearby. His parents have a great property and home that is pretty perfect for hosting such a big crew. Most cousins sleep in sleeping bags in the upstairs living room...bedtime is a real party!
My brother-in-law Kory is sooo talented and creates the best videos of our Cousin Camps. It is definitely one of the highlights of the entire week! The kids love to rewatch them and see their cousins over the years. Magical!
Traditions
Our theme this year centered around traditions and our heritage — in our family and in our extended family. It was so sweet to hear everyone talking about different traditions in their family. What unites all the cousins is their unique heritage, and I'm so grateful we spent some time this summer talking about their heritage and learning more about where their ancestors came.
Shirts
We have done the past few years and it's been so fun. This year, we asked for everyone to share something that represents them, and I listed several more that represent Cousin Camp and Candy Grandma and Grandma. I turned everything into icons and created this design. Shout-out to my friend Julie for the inspo! I love how it turned out, and on the front we used the Aldous cousin camp logo. I love seeing how much the kids love wearing their shirts throughout the year!
Schedule
We divide the week into three-hour morning sessions, about 45-minutes each, from about 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. It makes the mornings run smoothly, and by the time we break, it's lunch and swimming! Afternoons are for swimming and free play, and a few evenings will have an activity like Disco Swim.
Here are the sessions we did at Cousin Camp 2025. Most sessions change each year, with a few staying the same. This year, we asked each in-law to take a session and share a family tradition they have in their family.
Uncle Dallas: Life on the Dairy!
Dallas grew up on a dairy, and he made an incredible cardboard cow that you could milk and even see if there were calves?! Kids taste-tested milk and played a fun dairy game.
Aunt Leah: Mexican Heritage
We made traditional paper flowers, played Lotteria and taste-tested Mexican candy and sodas.
Aunt Cassie: The importance of Gathering
Cassie's family really values gathering together, so she talked about what brings her family together, and everyone made their trucker hats with patches. Cassie has made them before with her family, and she was a pro at making them all fit perfectly!
Uncle Jake: Family History
Jake is such a good storyteller, and he told some awesome stories about his family history. He had the kids running races and doing all the Millard traditions!
Star Navigation: learn about stars, find scripture connection, cut out stars and write personal goals on them
Mini Games: Aunt Kailynn taught each group how to play 2-3 games, so they can play them all week together. It was a fun thing to do at the beginning of the week because we would see them pick up the games throughout the week.
Gardening with Grandpa: Grandpa has an unreal garden, and he does an excellent job at creating stations for the cousins to help him in the garden. Pulling potatoes, picking strawberries, and watering plants keep everyone busy!
Kooking with Kourtney: Aunt Kourtney ran a session with the three groups. Oldest crew made lasagna and baked cookies for lunch. The middle crew made green salad/garlic bread for lunch and the baby crew made a Snackle box for snacktime later.
Outdoor games / Yoga: Aunt Cassie is a certified Yoga Instructor, and the kids love doing baby yoga with her outside.
Service Project: This year we made cards and bracelets for children in an orphanage in Bangladesh. It was so special to see the sweet and encouraging notes the children wrote and drew.
Axes and Arrows: Maybe the most anticipated session of the week is axes and arrows! Grandpa, Uncle Kameron and Uncle Jake teach the kiddos how to shoot arrows, throw axes and throw darts in a certain part of the property all set up for these activities.
Clean Like Grandma: A new Cousin Camp tradition was born this year! Grandma has the highest cleaning standards, and I've never met anyone who can clean like Grandma. Grandma had different stations for the kids to help dust baseboards, vacuum and mop floors, and even had the big kids cleaning toilets. The kids really loved that time with Grandma and it was a super hit.
Cousin Sessions
On the last day, we did something new this year and asked the three biggest cousins to create and lead their own sessions for the younger cousins. It was a great way to let them practice leading a small group, think about what would work well and executing it in a low-stake situation. They did amazing! Addison taught everyone different watercolor techniques, Maddox ran everyone through a timed obstacle course and Mylee made sand art with the kids. I loved seeing what they chose to do and watch them lead the sessions.
Food
Feeding 30+ people for a week in the same house is an actual marathon. We've tried it a different way every year, and I think has gotten better/easier/smarter every year.
Food takes lots of planning and prep and luckily, we have an incredibly talented caterer/restaurant owner in the family. This year, Kyle's sister Kourtney took on the task of creating a meal plan, making the master grocery list, ordering all the food and cooking it while we did camp. Everyone helped with prep/cooking, cleaning and dishes, so Kourtney didn't have to worry about everything, but she was a true hero this year.
The food was absolutely incredible, starting with Hawaiian Luau Night, where the menu was Kalua pork, teriyaki sauce, coconut rice, pineapple coconut rolls, hawaiian macaroni salad and grilled pineapple. Don't forget Kiki's Drink Shack with Virgin Pina Coladas, Blue Hawaiian and Virgin Mojitos. We ended the week with a Millard favorite, Surf and Turf: Grilled steak and shrimp, spinach salad, mac and cheese, cowboy caviar and delicious s'mores inspired rice crispy bars. Kailynn made snowcones as a poolside treat, and Grandma and Grandma topped Hawaiian night off with the best pineapple dole whip gelato. Of course, Cousin Camp wouldn't be the same without Candy Grandma's famous Orange Rolls and Beignets, which she handmade for everyone one morning. I told you, the food was amazing!
The other star of the week was the Blackstone Grill, which we gifted Grandma and Grandpa this year in anticipation of Cousin Camp :) It kept the inside kitchen clean and made cooking for a group of this size so much easier, at least if you're Kourtney. This was definitely our best year, and helped eliminate past pain points like food waste, daily grocery runs and kiddos with low-blood sugar. She planned a protein-rich breakfast, used leftovers for other meals (Kalua pork turned into street tacos on Taco Tuesday) and kept everything on theme for the day. She did a big Instacart order the day before camp, and did an HEB grocery run that night. Having everything planned and ready for meals helped us spend more time together and less time planning the next meal.
Kourtney knocked the food out of the park this year, and we were so lucky she shared her talents with us this year!
Here is our Cousin Camp Grocery List, a detailed look into how organized and smart Kourtney is :)
Carnival Night
Our ending activity this year was Carnival Night, which ended up as an epic night with tons of lawn games, tickets and prizes. Addison and Brynlee did face painting and balloon animals, and at the end of the night everyone got to choose a Squishmallow and too many treats :) I think it was a core memory for the cousins!
Pretty special to get this original crew together every year. Our kids have so many special core memories at Candy Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I'm so grateful they have these relationships. Expat life can make these relationships hard to form, and I am grateful for this soft landing my kids have at Candy Grandma's house. Here is a photo dump of all the different activities and fun we had during the week!
