Proposition Compound

For a couple of years now the same thing happens whenever two or more of my brothers and sisters get together. We start planning the Family Compound. All growing up we were surrounded by cousins (91 on my Mom's side) who were fun, capable and strong in the gospel. All of them got married in the temple and all the boys served missions. Talk about peer pressure! Now that my siblings and I are faced with the prospect of raising our own children in a scary world we are remembering the influence cousins can have on each other. And that brings us to ... The Compound (sans guns and ammo). While in Texas last week we all piled into a couple of minivans and drove around the suburbs of Dallas checking out land for sale. Here's my brother-in-law Joshua on the 90 acre plot complete with a pond that we found in a place called Lucas.

Since coming home Scott and I have talked many an hour about what our priorities are for our future family. We love it here in Seattle and can see ourselves raising our kids in a more urban environment than we ourselves grew up in. But what if everybody else is living the farm life in Texas? We don't know what the right answer is but we do know that wherever we live we will want our kids to be close to their cousins. Here's a few reasons why.