Latest / Stories That Live In Us / Be At The Things That Matter Most (with The Cowan Niblings) | Episode 27

Transcript

Be At The Things That Matter Most (with The Cowan Niblings) | Episode 27 · Stories That Live In Us

• 0:02
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I think the only thing I remember is and only because my mom tells me about it is we were leaving one of the days but I wanted to go back to the fruit bar and you were tired.
• 0:14
  Kaitlyn Cowan: But I guess, according to her, I looked up at you and said but you said I could do anything I want on this trip.
• 0:21
  Kaitlyn Cowan: And so we turned around and went back to the fruit bar do anything I want on this trip, and so we turned around and went back to the fruit bar.
• 0:26
  Crista Cowan: Stories that Live In Us is a podcast that inspires you to form deep connections with your family, past, present and future.
• 0:33
  Crista Cowan: I'm Krista Cowan, known online as the Barefoot Genealogist.
• 0:37
  Crista Cowan: I've spent my whole life discovering the power of family history, and I know that sharing the stories that live in you can change everything.
• 0:45
  Crista Cowan: If you follow me on Instagram, and I hope you do at Krista Cowan, you probably see me post quite a bit about a group of humans I call the Niblings.
• 0:58
  Crista Cowan: Now, that is, my six nephews and the world's only niece.
• 1:05
  Crista Cowan: When I was in my 20s, I kind of had this inkling that I was probably not ever going to get married and have children of my own, and so when my youngest brother presented the world with my parents' first grandchild, I made the decision instantly that I was going to be the world's greatest aunt.
• 1:23
  Crista Cowan: We don't tell my sister that, but she's a pretty great aunt as well, and we as a family are very, very involved in each other's lives.
• 1:34
  Crista Cowan: One of my brothers, with his wife and their five sons, live just a couple of minutes away from the ancestry office.
• 1:41
  Crista Cowan: Another one of my brothers and his wife and their two children have lived all over the world as they both served with the United States Air Force, and so I haven't had the opportunity to get to know those two children as well.
• 1:54
  Crista Cowan: But I've made an effort to spend time with them in their homes, sometimes for a week or two at a time every year, as often as I could, and then we love to have them come visit in the summer when they can, especially now that they are all back stateside.
• 2:12
  Crista Cowan: So I decided when my oldest nephew was little that I was going to start some very intentional family traditions, particularly around travel.
• 2:24
  Crista Cowan: I love to travel.
• 2:25
  Crista Cowan: I think seeing the world expands your perspective so much, and so I decided that when the kids were five years old, they were going to get to go on a trip with me to Disney Disneyland for the West Coast, cowans and Disney World for the niece when she was living on the East Coast at the time that she turned five.
• 2:50
  Crista Cowan: And this is something that I started with them because we have a Disney tradition in our family.
• 2:57
  Crista Cowan: When my mom turned five years old, disneyland opened, and the week it opened her parents took her to Disneyland.
• 3:05
  Crista Cowan: And then, when I was little, we were at Disneyland all of the time.
• 3:11
  Crista Cowan: Both sets of my grandparents all lived within an hour of the park, and so we spent a lot of time there.
• 3:18
  Crista Cowan: One of my cousins her other grandfather on her other side of the family was the head of security at Disneyland for years, and so sometimes my grandma would just say get them out of the house and have Andy sign them into the park.
• 3:31
  Crista Cowan: And I've continued that Disney tradition as an adult.
• 3:34
  Crista Cowan: I worked there in the college program when I was a teenager.
• 3:37
  Crista Cowan: I have taken birthday trips there, even as a 50-year-old woman, with my girlfriends.
• 3:43
  Crista Cowan: So Disneyland has always been this part of our family culture and I wanted to make sure that it continued that tradition into the next generation.
• 3:52
  Crista Cowan: And so for every one of them on their fifth birthday, it was a trip to Disney with Aunt Krista, and it has been so fun to watch how they've all kind of planned those trips differently.
• 4:04
  Crista Cowan: Some wanted to drive, some wanted to fly, some wanted their Uncle Cam to come with us or show up on day two, like lots of just different ways that they wanted to run or experience that time together.
• 4:21
  Crista Cowan: Now the second tradition that I wanted to instill was for their 13th birthday, when they turned 13,.
• 4:27
  Crista Cowan: I wanted to give them the opportunity to pick anywhere in the continental United States that they wanted to go, and I would take them again on a solo trip, just them and me.
• 4:41
  Crista Cowan: Them choose where they wanted to go and be really intentional about it and try to expand their idea of what might be interesting, and then plan the trip and anticipate the trip and then experience that.
• 4:58
  Crista Cowan: So far, out of the seven nibblings, I have taken five of them on that trip, two still to go.
• 5:05
  Crista Cowan: The third tradition that I wanted to instill hasn't happened yet, and that is that when they graduate from college or return home from their LDS mission whichever comes first I would let them choose anywhere in the world and we would go on a trip together there.
• 5:24
  Crista Cowan: And the oldest is in college I think he's entering his junior year, and number two just left on his mission, so he'll be home in two years.
• 5:35
  Crista Cowan: So I may be taking two trips very close together with the two of them.
• 5:40
  Crista Cowan: The next one is a junior in high school and then we've got a sophomore in high school, freshman, freshman in high school.
• 5:50
  Crista Cowan: So we've got these, you know, trips that are going to happen really soon.
• 5:55
  Crista Cowan: But I had this realization a couple of years ago that I wanted them to have experiences together as well.
• 6:02
  Crista Cowan: As much as I love having that one-on-one time with them and I think it's important I also think it's important that, as siblings and cousins, that they have this opportunity to come together and, in an environment where it's not always about the adults in their life, that they get to develop relationships independently with each other.
• 6:24
  Crista Cowan: That they get to develop relationships independently with each other.
• 6:25
  Crista Cowan: And so a couple of years ago I talked to my brother, cameron, and my sister, and we decided that we were going to, for Christmas that year, buy all of the local kids here passports, because they had never had passports, never had a need for passports.
• 6:40
  Crista Cowan: Of course the two Air Force kids have them, but that was the gift we gave the five Lehigh kids that year and that was all in preparation for this trip that I wanted to take all of them on.
• 6:54
  Crista Cowan: So I just got back from a trip to Alaska with all seven of my niblings.
• 7:03
  Crista Cowan: I took them on a cruise.
• 7:05
  Crista Cowan: We left out of Seattle up and back to Glacier Bay National Park, with stops along the way, and it was one of the most delightful weeks of my life the anticipation and the planning of it, the actual being there with them and then watching them develop those relationships.
• 7:22
  Crista Cowan: Now, this episode you're about to listen to is all seven of them here in the podcast studio with me, and it's the morning after we got back from that trip.
• 7:32
  Crista Cowan: So two things you need to know.
• 7:33
  Crista Cowan: One is there's a lot of them.
• 7:35
  Crista Cowan: It was early morning, most of them are teenagers, so you're going to get a whole lot of single word answers and maybe a little bit of a hodgepodge of things as I ask them questions, but it will give you a feel for who they are and how they feel about being a part of our family.
• 7:54
  Crista Cowan: The second thing you need to know is that I got really sick on the last day of the trip.
• 8:00
  Crista Cowan: We got stuck in the Seattle airport for eight hours on the floor because it was super crowded and I picked up some bugs.
• 8:08
  Crista Cowan: So I in this episode do not sound like I always sound, but it was the only time that I could get all seven of them together in the studio and so I wasn't about to miss that opportunity.
• 8:19
  Crista Cowan: No-transcript.
• 8:37
  Gabe Cowan: What's up everyone.
• 8:38
  Gabe Cowan: I'm Gabe, I'm 18.
• 8:40
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I'm Caitlin, I'm 14.
• 8:43
  Asher Cowan: I'm Asher, I'm 14.
• 8:46
  Levi Cowan: I'm Levi and I'm 16.
• 8:49
  Corbin Cowan: My name is Corbin and I am 20.
• 8:53
  Crista Cowan: And two days.
• 8:56
  Phin Cowan: My name is Finn and I am 11.
• 9:00
  Andrew Cowan: My name is Andrew and I'm 12.
• 9:02
  Crista Cowan: So that's the crew, so excited that you are all here with me in the podcast studio.
• 9:07
  Crista Cowan: I know it has been a very long week and it was a very late night last night or early morning for some of you, so thank you for getting up early and coming here to hang out with me.
• 9:16
  Crista Cowan: So we just spent an entire week together in very close quarters on a cruise ship.
• 9:25
  Crista Cowan: But and I do want to talk about that but before we talk about that, I want to hear a little bit from some of you about what is your favorite thing about being a part of our family.
• 9:40
  Crista Cowan: There's a lot of us, right, and we're all kind of crazy involved in each other's lives, and sometimes some people might think we're too involved in each other's lives.
• 9:50
  Crista Cowan: You have very involved aunts and uncles and grandparents, and so yeah.
• 9:56
  Crista Cowan: So, levi, let's start with you your favorite thing about being part of our family.
• 10:01
  Levi Cowan: My favorite thing is probably just how supportive everyone is.
• 10:04
  Crista Cowan: What does that mean?
• 10:05
  Levi Cowan: Like they show up to like sports games, theater plays, stuff like that.
• 10:10
  Crista Cowan: Okay gabe, what about you?
• 10:13
  Gabe Cowan: Food?
• 10:15
  Crista Cowan: Well, you got to expound on that.
• 10:16
  Crista Cowan: What does that mean?
• 10:17
  Gabe Cowan: Lots of food.
• 10:18
  Crista Cowan: okay, Phin, what about you?
• 10:26
  Phin Cowan: My favorite thing about being in this family is probably like how everybody finds a way to be at the things that matter the most.
• 10:33
  Crista Cowan: Okay.
• 10:34
  Crista Cowan: Asher.
• 10:35
  Asher Cowan: I like all the people we meet.
• 10:40
  Crista Cowan: What do you mean.
• 10:41
  Asher Cowan: Like.
• 10:41
  Asher Cowan: ?
• 10:41
  Asher Cowan: Just because of how different all of us are, we meet a lot of different people
• 10:45
  Crista Cowan: Like with your brother's friends, our friends, is that what you mean?
• 10:49
  Asher Cowan: Yeah, all of it.
• 10:49
  Crista Cowan: yeah, and there's always somebody new around that dinner table at your mom's house.
• 10:53
  Crista Cowan: Huh, yeah, Kaitlyn.
• 11:04
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I like how we can all connect in different ways.
• 11:05
  Kaitlyn Cowan: We all have a little thing that we can get together and talk about and can you connect over?
• 11:08
  Crista Cowan: can you give me a, for example?
• 11:13
  Kaitlyn Cowan: sports is a big one in our house.
• 11:15
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Just all kinds of sports
• 11:17
  Crista Cowan: okay Corb corb
• 11:19
  Corbin Cowan: I like that there's always something going on and like it's never boring and no matter what you like, there's always something like there'll be a sports game or there'll be a play, or there'll be like board games at the house.
• 11:30
  Corbin Cowan: There's always something to be doing that someone will enjoy.
• 11:33
  Corbin Cowan: If you want, yeah, if you don't want, you can just go take a nap on the couch.
• 11:39
  Crista Cowan: And still be a part of it.
• 11:40
  Crista Cowan: Right, because the Because the way that your parents' house is set up, with the kind of the open floor plan, just means you can go be by yourself if you want to go to your room, or you can stay there and be kind of part of the action, even if you don't want to participate in whatever event is actually happening at the moment.
• 11:57
  Crista Cowan: Andrew, what about you?
• 11:58
  Andrew Cowan: Vacation.
• 12:01
  Crista Cowan: any particular vacations
• 12:05
  Andrew Cowan: any cruise.
• 12:06
  Crista Cowan: Well, we've been on one now together, and I know you and your sister have been on one with your parents, so there are other vacations that we take in our family.
• 12:17
  Crista Cowan: There was a tradition that I started when you started being born Corbin, of course, is the oldest and then Gabe came along and I decided that I was going to take you to Disneyland when you were five years old, in a one-on-one trip with me, and part of the reason I chose that fifth birthday was because Disneyland opened the year that your Nana turned five and her parents took her to Disneyland, and then our parents, your grandparents, took us all a lot.
• 12:49
  Crista Cowan: We spent a lot of time at Disneyland and then I worked there when I was 18.
• 12:54
  Crista Cowan: And so Disneyland has been an important part of our family culture, and so I wanted to help that continue into this generation.
• 13:01
  Crista Cowan: And so this is my question, because every one of you have now been on that trip, but you were only five years old, so I want to know if you have any particular memory about that trip, and I want to hear the story about it.
• 13:16
  Crista Cowan: If there's something in particular and, Phin, we will start with you this time.
• 13:23
  Phin Cowan: Um, It was during the firework show.
• 13:27
  Phin Cowan: Um, I was with Crista and Cam, and then after that, um well, during that, I was getting tired.
• 13:35
  Phin Cowan: So then, after I fell asleep in Cam's shirt.
• 13:38
  Crista Cowan: You did.
• 13:40
  Crista Cowan: I remember that.
• 13:41
  Crista Cowan: So yeah, for some of you you got to go just with me, and for some of you you invited your Uncle Cam to come with us and he showed up for both days or one day and he came with you.
• 13:53
  Crista Cowan: Andrew, do you remember when I took you to Disneyland?
• 13:56
  Andrew Cowan: Not really, no.
• 13:57
  Andrew Cowan: All I remember is the rides.
• 13:59
  Crista Cowan: Okay, do you remember who went with us?
• 14:04
  Andrew Cowan: Pretty sure it was just you.
• 14:05
  Crista Cowan: It was just me the first day and then the second day.
• 14:08
  Crista Cowan: Who joined us, do you remember?
• 14:09
  Crista Cowan: No, no, yeah, it was Cam, but then it was also Nana and Bumpa, you got a little extra treatment because they happened to be down in Southern California that week.
• 14:22
  Crista Cowan: Who's next, asher?
• 14:27
  Asher Cowan: I don't really remember much from the trip but I remember on the way to the airport we were riding with your roof down and listening to music pretty loud.
• 14:34
  Crista Cowan: Yep, everybody got to choose whether they wanted to drive the 10 hours to Southern California or fly, and you chose to fly, but we had to take my car to the airport.
• 14:45
  Crista Cowan: Okay, caitlin.
• 14:47
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I think the only thing I remember is and only because my mom tells me about it is we were leaving one of the days but I wanted to go back to the fruit bar and you were tired.
• 15:00
  Kaitlyn Cowan: But I guess, according to her, I looked up at you and said but you said I could do anything I want on this trip, and so we turned around and went back to the fruit bar.
• 15:10
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Yep.
• 15:11
  Crista Cowan: Doesn't matter how tired you are.
• 15:12
  Crista Cowan: When the trip is about the kid, you have to do what they want.
• 15:16
  Crista Cowan: Okay, Levi, you're up.
• 15:25
  Levi Cowan: I remember when we got to the airport and I asked Cam to come and he said he couldn't.
• 15:27
  Levi Cowan: And we got to the airport and Cam was there waiting after Krista told me he wasn't coming well, it was supposed to be a surprise, not a lie.
• 15:35
  Crista Cowan: Sometimes those are a little blurry, aren't they, gabe?
• 15:41
  Gabe Cowan: I do not have any memory of it.
• 15:44
  Crista Cowan: No recollection at all, trying to think if I can remember what some of my favorite things about your trip were.
• 15:50
  Crista Cowan: One of my favorite things was just how excited you were just to be able to spend time with me.
• 15:57
  Crista Cowan: When you were little, you were awfully cute.
• 15:59
  Crista Cowan: Now you're giant, you're still awfully cute, thanks corbin.
• 16:08
  Corbin Cowan: So I went before.
• 16:09
  Corbin Cowan: Like half of the people in this room were even alive, so I don't really remember much, but I was one of the people who drove the 10 hours and I just remember like listening to music and stuff and it was really fun just to like look around.
• 16:21
  Corbin Cowan: It was my first time leaving utah, so it really fun just to look around.
• 16:23
  Corbin Cowan: It was my first time leaving Utah.
• 16:23
  Corbin Cowan: It was fun just to see what else was out there.
• 16:25
  Corbin Cowan: Yeah.
• 16:27
  Crista Cowan: And we drove my little convertible the whole way with the top down most of the way Not the whole way, because your birthday is in July and it's very hot and we have to go through Vegas.
• 16:36
  Crista Cowan: I do remember it was really hot one of the days that we were there Awesome, okay.
• 16:42
  Crista Cowan: So those fifth birthday trips to Disneyland was kind of the first thing I had planned for you.
• 16:49
  Crista Cowan: And then the second thing that I had planned for each of you was a solo trip with me to anywhere in the continental United States that you wanted to go, that you wanted to go, and so you got to choose.
• 17:06
  Crista Cowan: And I'd love it if you would each tell me what you chose, what city you chose and if you had a reason behind choosing that.
• 17:10
  Crista Cowan: And then maybe a little bit about your memory from that trip.
• 17:12
  Crista Cowan: Oh, asher, we're starting with you.
• 17:15
  Crista Cowan: Maybe we shouldn't start with Asher, because Asher's a little unusual about this.
• 17:20
  Crista Cowan: Let's start with the oldest this time.
• 17:22
  Crista Cowan: Corbin, let's start with you.
• 17:24
  Corbin Cowan: All right.
• 17:24
  Corbin Cowan: So I went to New York on my trip.
• 17:26
  Corbin Cowan: But I got lucky because I also got to go to Washington DC because Krista had a conference in there.
• 17:31
  Corbin Cowan: But I wanted to go to New York because I was like starting to get into theater and I really wanted to go to Broadway and see a couple of shows on there.
• 17:38
  Corbin Cowan: So that was like the biggest reason I chose that.
• 17:42
  Crista Cowan: Do you remember what shows we saw?
• 17:44
  Corbin Cowan: We saw School of Rock and we saw Anastasia, yeah, and they were so good.
• 17:50
  Corbin Cowan: It was like one of the first times I saw professional level performances.
• 17:54
  Corbin Cowan: It was just so amazing and it like probably fueled my love for theater for the rest of high school, the rest of the time that I was doing theater, and you were very good at it.
• 18:07
  Crista Cowan: Do you remember anything else about that trip?
• 18:09
  Crista Cowan: Any other favorite memories?
• 18:12
  Corbin Cowan: Well, I have a not so fun memory.
• 18:14
  Corbin Cowan: There was this one day when we were in Washington DC.
• 18:17
  Corbin Cowan: Krista was at a conference, so I was just kind of out on my own in Washington DC.
• 18:19
  Corbin Cowan: Krista was at a conference, so I was just kind of out on my own in Washington figuring out what's going on and I really wanted to go get a crepe from this crepe place we found the first day we were there and I was so excited for this crepe so I like hopped on the subway.
• 18:31
  Corbin Cowan: I went down to Union Station, I get off and there's this homeless guy and he was like looked like he needed some money.
• 18:38
  Corbin Cowan: So I'm like, oh, I can give you like $5.
• 18:40
  Corbin Cowan: So I go to open up my wallet and I take out $5.
• 18:43
  Corbin Cowan: And before I know it he's in my wallet, pulled out all my money and ran down the road.
• 18:52
  Corbin Cowan: So that was pretty sad.
• 18:52
  Corbin Cowan: And then I didn't get my crepe, but I did get to go to the zoo later and I found the pandas there.
• 18:56
  Crista Cowan: And we love the National Zoo, and people may think I'm crazy for letting a 13 year old wander around a strange big city by themselves, but I did have a tracking on your phone so I knew where you were the whole time and we had made that trip several times and the Washington DC subway system is really easy to figure out, so you were confident that you could do it.
• 19:18
  Crista Cowan: You just unfortunately had this run in with your generous heart.
• 19:23
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, okay, gabe, where did you go on your trip and why'd you pick it?
• 19:29
  Gabe Cowan: I went to Boston and I picked it because there's good sports teams there and there was.
• 19:34
  Gabe Cowan: It was Halloween time, so I got to go to Salem for Halloween.
• 19:41
  Crista Cowan: That was super fun.
• 19:41
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, your birthday is the end of October, so it just so happens that the week of your birthday the year you turned 13, the Red Sox had just won the World Series the day before we got there, and so they had a big parade the day we were there, and then both the Celtics and the Patriots had home games that week.
• 20:00
  Crista Cowan: I don't know how you managed that, but we got to go to all, and since my birthday is a week after yours, your Uncle Cam bought us really really close seats for that Celtics game and the Red Sox were being honored at halftime, and so we got to sit with the team.
• 20:17
  Crista Cowan: Do you remember that, Do you?
• 20:21
  Crista Cowan: Okay, so that was fun for me.
• 20:24
  Crista Cowan: Do you remember the Patriots game?
• 20:26
  Crista Cowan: What happened afterwards?
• 20:36
  Gabe Cowan: Oh yeah.
• 20:36
  Gabe Cowan: So I hate the Patriots.
• 20:37
  Gabe Cowan: The Patriots won, they beat the Packers and then, to make the night even worse, we got stuck in the parking lot for like four hours.
• 20:41
  Gabe Cowan: Worst part about the story two days prior there was this guy who was our Uber driver and he's like dude, you guys are going to the game, I'm going too.
• 20:49
  Gabe Cowan: You can slide me like 20 bucks and we'll call it good.
• 20:52
  Gabe Cowan: The traffic's terrible.
• 20:53
  Gabe Cowan: So Krista thinks she has a great plan to go on the train there, which was there, we got there quick, but the way back, which was there, we got there quick, but the way back there was no train.
• 21:03
  Gabe Cowan: So we got stuck in the parking lot waiting for an Uber driver until 4 am and it was cold and the Packers had just lost.
• 21:14
  Crista Cowan: What do you remember about Salem?
• 21:15
  Crista Cowan: That's one of my favorite cities in the US to visit, especially at Halloween time.
• 21:17
  Crista Cowan: It's a lot of fun in the US to visit, especially at Halloween time.
• 21:22
  Gabe Cowan: It's a lot of fun.
• 21:22
  Gabe Cowan: So the first thing I remember from Salem was, right when we got there, there was two sister missionaries and it was before the time of being able to talk to all your people as much as you want, so they had us take a picture of them and send it to their parents because it was Halloween.
• 21:39
  Gabe Cowan: And then I remember all the tours and my favorite part was when we got to go trick-or-treating and there's not a lot of houses, but every single one of them give you full, full-size candy bars, so you only have to go to a couple nice.
• 21:53
  Crista Cowan: Okay, levi, you're up.
• 21:56
  Levi Cowan: Your trip was next uh, I went to Florida, miami and the Keys.
• 22:02
  Levi Cowan: Why'd you pick that?
• 22:03
  Levi Cowan: Because I wanted to go to the Everglades, because of the animals.
• 22:07
  Levi Cowan: And then Key West was just for like the island, and the shed, the shed.
• 22:14
  Crista Cowan: You're going to have to explain the shed.
• 22:16
  Crista Cowan: What hurricane was it?
• 22:18
  Crista Cowan: I don't remember, but you were 10?
• 22:20
  Crista Cowan: .
• 22:20
  Crista Cowan: So it had been like three years before you turned 13.
• 22:24
  Levi Cowan: So there was a hurricane and there was, like it was, in the southernmost point of the United States and there was a shed that was just sitting there taking all the waves, and they named it.
• 22:36
  Crista Cowan: Fred the Shed and we watched it on a webcam for hours that day from your kitchen table.
• 22:43
  Crista Cowan: I remember that and you just thought it was the most fascinating thing, and so when it came time for your trip, you wanted to go meet Fred the Shed and get your picture taken with him.
• 22:52
  Crista Cowan: Anything else from that trip that you remember.
• 22:57
  Levi Cowan: Oh, you, let me drive the rental Jeep.
• 22:59
  Crista Cowan: Don't tell people that we did rent a Jeep because that was what you wanted to tool around Florida in.
• 23:08
  Crista Cowan: And yes, when we were out in the middle of the Everglades in a parking lot with no people, I did let you drive for a minute.
• 23:17
  Crista Cowan: I don't know if that's going to get me arrested or not, but anything else you remember.
• 23:23
  Levi Cowan: All the animals and the tours in the Everglades.
• 23:27
  Crista Cowan: Okay, do you remember the alligator just chilling on the side of the road as we drove through the Everglades?
• 23:33
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, I do, super crazy.
• 23:35
  Crista Cowan: Okay, asher, now we get.
• 23:40
  Crista Cowan: Actually Caitlin's was first.
• 23:43
  Crista Cowan: Well, caitlin's trip wasn't first, was it?
• 23:45
  Crista Cowan: We need to explain that and then we'll let Asher go.
• 23:50
  Crista Cowan: So Caitlin is how many months older than Asher are you?
• 23:54
  Crista Cowan: I think almost exactly nine, nine months, okay, so Caitlin turned 13 before Asher turned 13, no-transcript 13 and got his trip first.
• 24:26
  Asher Cowan: So so, asher, since your trip was first, we'll go with you next so for my trip, krista had a work conference in richmond, I think virginia and so we went we were going on a road trip to there and then went down and like followed the coastline kind of with those States back to Utah.
• 24:51
  Crista Cowan: And why did we take a road trip instead of going to a place, asher?
• 24:56
  Asher Cowan: Uh, I didn't know, I wanted to go.
• 24:57
  Crista Cowan: Okay, it was so interesting to me because all three of your older brothers knew exactly where they wanted to go.
• 25:02
  Crista Cowan: Okay, it was so interesting to me because all three of your older brothers knew exactly where they wanted to go.
• 25:04
  Crista Cowan: It wasn't even really a question.
• 25:06
  Crista Cowan: I mean, I think Gabe had a couple of options that he was kind of playing around with, looking at sports schedules to determine, but you just had no idea.
• 25:16
  Crista Cowan: And so I thought what a great opportunity to introduce you to a whole lot of places.
• 25:21
  Crista Cowan: And so we started in Utah and we drove to Virginia across the middle of the country and then drove back along the Gulf Coast states, and you had a couple of criteria for our trip.
• 25:33
  Crista Cowan: What were they?
• 25:34
  Crista Cowan: What did you want?
• 25:34
  Asher Cowan: to see most.
• 25:35
  Asher Cowan: I wanted to go to where they filmed the show Outer Banks, and then I wanted to go look at the Houston Rockets stadium.
• 25:44
  Crista Cowan: Okay, and that desire to look at the Houston Rockets stadium meant we stopped at stadiums in how many states, I don't even know A lot, a lot and I had one rule about food.
• 25:59
  Crista Cowan: What was it?
• 26:00
  Crista Cowan: Do you remember we could only eat chicken nuggets once a day.
• 26:04
  Crista Cowan: We had to eat somewhere that was local in almost every place that we went.
• 26:12
  Crista Cowan: Do you remember any favorite meals other than your chicken nuggets?
• 26:16
  Asher Cowan: That one steakhouse we went to.
• 26:17
  Crista Cowan: In Kansas city.
• 26:18
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, yeah, that was really good.
• 26:20
  Crista Cowan: Okay, um, so your trip was a little bit longer because we drove cross country, went to that conference and then drove back, so it took what Two weeks, yeah, so I think that was a unique experience.
• 26:33
  Crista Cowan: Okay, and then we get to Caitlin, caitlin.
• 26:38
  Crista Cowan: Um, we finally managed to get your trip scheduled, and it actually just happened earlier this year.
• 26:44
  Crista Cowan: Right, we left the day after Christmas.
• 26:48
  Kaitlyn Cowan: We left on Christmas.
• 26:50
  Crista Cowan: We did.
• 26:52
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Because I was like for the entire time leading up to it, I was like you need to make Christmas dinner early because I do not want to miss it.
• 26:59
  Kaitlyn Cowan: So we had Christmas dinner early that day.
• 27:07
  Crista Cowan: I got my food, I packed up and off to the airport to meet up with you.
• 27:08
  Crista Cowan: That's right.
• 27:09
  Crista Cowan: And that was the first time you had ever flown alone, as an unaccompanied minor, because you had to come from out of state to meet me.
• 27:13
  Crista Cowan: And then we flew from Utah to your chosen destination, which was New York.
• 27:19
  Crista Cowan: And why did you pick new york?
• 27:22
  Kaitlyn Cowan: um, because, following corbin's footsteps, I am a raging theater kid.
• 27:25
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Um, I think you also gave me the choice of going up to the area that anne anne of green gables was set in.
• 27:36
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I wasn't that interested in those books, but Broadway, broadway called to me, so I went to New York.
• 27:47
  Kaitlyn Cowan: We got to see three shows.
• 27:50
  Kaitlyn Cowan: We saw Six, spamalot and MJ.
• 27:54
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Those were incredible.
• 27:56
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I almost cried at Six.
• 27:58
  Kaitlyn Cowan: It was an amazing trip, though.
• 28:03
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I loved it so much.
• 28:04
  Crista Cowan: It was because you're the world's only niece.
• 28:06
  Crista Cowan: I did give you a little bit more latitude and, yes, I did tell you you could go to Canada if you wanted.
• 28:12
  Crista Cowan: But you chose New York and I'm glad you did.
• 28:14
  Crista Cowan: And I'm also kind of glad that your trip was delayed a little bit, because your birthday would have meant we would have been there in the summer.
• 28:21
  Crista Cowan: If we had gone, it would have been not great, and so the fact that we not only delayed it, we delayed it almost a year and a half and what's up, it took like three tries it did just to get our schedules to coordinate, but that meant that we got to be there for the week after Christmas and Christmas in New York is magical.
• 28:42
  Crista Cowan: We were there Christmas through New Year's Eve, gabe has things to say.
• 28:47
  Gabe Cowan: Was Buddy the Elf there?
• 28:50
  Crista Cowan: Buddy the Elf was not there.
• 28:52
  Crista Cowan: However, what did we see?
• 28:54
  Kaitlyn Cowan: A lot of things.
• 28:55
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I don't know what you want me to say.
• 28:59
  Crista Cowan: What were your other favorite things besides the plays?
• 29:02
  Kaitlyn Cowan: You had me walk down to the tree and I guess that is a thing that you do.
• 29:08
  Kaitlyn Cowan: You let everybody have a little independence.
• 29:13
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I was terrified.
• 29:17
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I just found out that you put a little air tag in my pocket.
• 29:21
  Kaitlyn Cowan: So knowing that now I'm glad.
• 29:24
  Kaitlyn Cowan: But in the moment I was like, oh, this is great.
• 29:28
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I have to walk down like three blocks that way and 20 the other way, and I don't even know what time it was.
• 29:37
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I got to see this incredible, just big design show outside of Rockefeller Center well, it wasn't the Rockefeller Center, it was on the way.
• 29:49
  Kaitlyn Cowan: It was one of the I can't remember what designer store, but it was some fancy designer store and they were having this just huge light show on the side of their building and I had to stand there for like 20 minutes because people wouldn't move.
• 30:03
  Kaitlyn Cowan: So I got a ton of photos of that and then I finally made it to the tree, after getting lost and standing at the corner of that really fancy restaurant that we ate at for like five minutes.
• 30:17
  Crista Cowan: But I made it to the tree, I got a bunch of photos that, and then I came back there you go, yeah, and it's interesting because, um, because your uncle Cam finds a way into everybody's trip just a little bit.
• 30:27
  Crista Cowan: With Gabe, he sent us to the Celtics game I think you knew this.
• 30:31
  Crista Cowan: With our trip.
• 30:32
  Crista Cowan: That fancy dinner we ate at was at Cam's favorite Greek restaurant in New York City called Avra, and his Christmas gift to me was that he paid for our meal.
• 30:43
  Crista Cowan: And and so that was kind of fun to be able to not only have a fancy dinner but to send him pictures.
• 30:50
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Yeah, and also sitting there and just in awe over the things that rich people will do for their food.
• 30:59
  Crista Cowan: Okay, well, andrew and Finn, you're the two youngest and neither of you have turned 13 yet, but Andrew, you've got a birthday coming up here pretty soon.
• 31:08
  Crista Cowan: So what are you thinking?
• 31:10
  Crista Cowan: You've got some choices to make about where you want to go and how you want to spend your birthday trip.
• 31:18
  Andrew Cowan: I don't remember the names of the places, but I think it was SeaWorld and somewhere with a lot of music.
• 31:26
  Crista Cowan: Okay.
• 31:27
  Crista Cowan: So your choices, I think, are between San Diego because you love aquatic life, and New Orleans because you love music.
• 31:36
  Crista Cowan: Why do you love music so much?
• 31:38
  Andrew Cowan: I'm not sure.
• 31:39
  Andrew Cowan: I just really love it.
• 31:42
  Crista Cowan: And do you play any instruments?
• 31:43
  Crista Cowan: Yes, which ones?
• 31:45
  Andrew Cowan: The bassoon and the clarinet.
• 31:47
  Crista Cowan: And you have also taken Drum lessons.
• 31:49
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, you're a musical kid and you actually have a really great voice.
• 31:53
  Crista Cowan: I think you would love New Orleans.
• 31:55
  Crista Cowan: It's one of my favorite cities, but San Diego is also pretty fantastic.
• 31:59
  Crista Cowan: So are you going to flip a coin?
• 32:01
  Crista Cowan: How are you going to decide?
• 32:05
  Andrew Cowan: I think I'll just make it up as I go.
• 32:07
  Crista Cowan: Okay, when the time comes, it's coming fast.
• 32:09
  Crista Cowan: Okay, finn, your birthday is still a little ways away before you turn 13,.
• 32:15
  Crista Cowan: But what are you thinking?
• 32:18
  Phin Cowan: I probably want to go to New York.
• 32:20
  Crista Cowan: How come?
• 32:21
  Phin Cowan: Because I like watching plays and stuff like that.
• 32:24
  Crista Cowan: Okay, we're kind of a little bit of a theater family, aren't we?
• 32:26
  Crista Cowan: Do you have any plays you want to see that you're hoping are there?
• 32:30
  Phin Cowan: Beetlejuice.
• 32:31
  Crista Cowan: And anything else.
• 32:33
  Crista Cowan: No, that's your one.
• 32:35
  Crista Cowan: You kind of know that soundtrack by heart, huh, and it's only because I already took you to see Six when it was touring.
• 32:41
  Crista Cowan: I would have been on the list too.
• 32:43
  Crista Cowan: Okay, fantastic.
• 32:45
  Crista Cowan: Well, it has been really fun for me to watch you kind of plan these trips and to spend this time with you in that one-on-one environment.
• 32:55
  Crista Cowan: I think it's really important that kids have trusted adults in their lives other than their parents, although I adore all of your parents.
• 33:03
  Crista Cowan: But I think that that's really important, and so I'm really grateful that your parents have allowed me to take you on those trips, that they've trusted me.
• 33:13
  Crista Cowan: I still remember the first time I took Corbin, however, to Disneyland when he turned five and Adam handed you over to me with a little letter saying that you know I could be responsible for medical decisions while we were out of the state and told me that if anything happened to you, I was not to come home.
• 33:31
  Crista Cowan: It just it terrified him to let his firstborn go.
• 33:36
  Crista Cowan: I think it got easier as the kids went on, to the point that when Asher came along, it was just like okay, have fun, see you in two weeks.
• 33:44
  Crista Cowan: But the amount of love that your parents have for you is always evident to me whenever I take you anywhere, and how precious you are to them, and the fact that they trust me with you means a lot to me that they allow me to be that involved in your lives.
• 34:06
  Crista Cowan: Now, the next trip that you thought you were going to get right Disneyland when you're five, anywhere in the continental US when you're 13.
• 34:14
  Crista Cowan: The next thing I told you was that when you graduate from college or return home from your mission, whichever comes first, you get to choose.
• 34:23
  Crista Cowan: Anywhere in the world you want to go, and I will take you there, and none of you have reached that yet.
• 34:28
  Crista Cowan: Corbin, you're going to be a junior in college and Gabe leaves on his mission in a week and a half, two weeks from today.
• 34:35
  Crista Cowan: Two weeks from today, okay, and so you two will probably end up bankrupting me the year that Gabe gets home and Corbin graduates from college within months of each other.
• 34:48
  Crista Cowan: Um, but I'm really looking forward to that, and so let's just do a quick round.
• 34:54
  Crista Cowan: Robin, we'll go around the room, starting with Gabe.
• 34:57
  Crista Cowan: Had you have any idea where you want to go when you get home from your mission, maybe Italy, any North, south, all over, anywhere.
• 35:08
  Gabe Cowan: Anywhere.
• 35:09
  Crista Cowan: Because food.
• 35:11
  Gabe Cowan: Yes, pasta food.
• 35:15
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I have no idea, no thoughts at all.
• 35:18
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Depends on where I go before that.
• 35:21
  Crista Cowan: Okay, see, caitlin and Andrew are a little bit more well-traveled, and so they get to go places with their parents, and I think your grandfather's sending you to Japan next year, so on a birthday trip.
• 35:34
  Crista Cowan: So that's kind of fun.
• 35:35
  Crista Cowan: So, yeah, so we'll see when the time comes.
• 35:39
  Asher Cowan: I don't really know, probably like China or Japan, okay.
• 35:45
  Levi Cowan: I want to go to Japan for the college shows.
• 35:50
  Corbin Cowan: I'm either wanting to go to Taiwan or Greece.
• 35:53
  Corbin Cowan: I'm not sure yet.
• 35:55
  Crista Cowan: Those are very different, Corbin.
• 35:56
  Crista Cowan: I need an explanation.
• 35:57
  Corbin Cowan: Well, greece, because I've just always wanted to go there and I've seen Mamma Mia and it just looks so fun, so I want to go there.
• 36:04
  Corbin Cowan: And then Taiwan.
• 36:05
  Corbin Cowan: I'm in college, I'm minoring in Chinese, so just being able to go to the culture where they speak Chinese and be able to use my skills would be fun If you make me take you to Taiwan.
• 36:16
  Crista Cowan: We're going to have to bring Cam with us.
• 36:18
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, that's okay.
• 36:20
  Crista Cowan: Cam not only lived there, he also speaks fluent Chinese.
• 36:23
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, I think I would like that as well.
• 36:28
  Phin Cowan: I would I probably want to go to Paris.
• 36:32
  Crista Cowan: Any particular reason.
• 36:34
  Phin Cowan: To see the Eiffel Tower, okay, okay.
• 36:38
  Crista Cowan: There's a Disneyland in Paris too.
• 36:42
  Andrew Cowan: I went there, yeah, so I'd either want to go back to Scotland or to Japan.
• 36:48
  Crista Cowan: Okay, why Scotland?
• 36:49
  Crista Cowan: What do you love about it?
• 36:50
  Crista Cowan: The bagpipes and drum shows?
• 36:52
  Crista Cowan: Oh, it's the music.
• 36:54
  Crista Cowan: Again, I love that you got a theme, makes me happy.
• 36:57
  Crista Cowan: Yay, well, that is the trip that we're all kind of looking forward to.
• 37:02
  Crista Cowan: No-transcript.
• 37:31
  Crista Cowan: I thought it would be fun to take all of you on a trip together, and so I talked to all of your parents and we hatched up a plan and then I had to approach you about it to see if you were interested, particularly with Caitlin and Andrew, because your summer track season runs really late into the summer and here in Utah the other boys, their school starts before summer is even over.
• 37:55
  Crista Cowan: I mean, like halfway through August you all are back in school.
• 37:57
  Crista Cowan: And I knew Gabe was leaving on a mission, even though he didn't have a date yet.
• 38:00
  Crista Cowan: And I knew Gabe was leaving on a mission even though he didn't have a date yet, and so I had this really narrow window of about three weeks where it was possible to take all of you on a vacation, because once Gabe leaves, then Levi will go and then Asher will go and Corbin will then be graduated from college and off on, you know, maybe in a career and off living his life, and so this was kind of this sweet spot where I could take all of you on a trip, and I decided that a cruise was probably the best option for a couple of reasons.
• 38:29
  Crista Cowan: One, it's self-contained, like you can't go anywhere because you're on a boat, like you can only go so far, no wandering off and getting lost.
• 38:40
  Crista Cowan: Two, my favorite thing, because looking around this room with all of these teenage boys and not teenage boys and a teenage girl food was an issue.
• 38:52
  Crista Cowan: If I had had to feed all of you on a regular vacation, I think again you would have bankrupted me, and so a cruise was a great opportunity to just turn you loose on a buffet or apparently you all liked the restaurants better and get you fed as often as you needed to be.
• 39:17
  Crista Cowan: And then I chose Alaska.
• 39:18
  Crista Cowan: So for Christmas this year I let you all know that that was your Christmas gift was that we were all going to Alaska together on a cruise, and then your birthday present for this year was the plane ticket to get there.
• 39:26
  Crista Cowan: So so two for one.
• 39:28
  Crista Cowan: For me this has been such a fun week, and I know that we got home very, very early this morning and you're all a little bit tired and maybe even a little bit jet lagged and don't have your land legs yet after being on a ship for a week.
• 39:47
  Crista Cowan: But I want to hear a little something about what your favorite thing about that time together was.
• 39:54
  Crista Cowan: Levi, we're going to start with you.
• 39:58
  Levi Cowan: I'm going to have to say the food, just because everyone was always wanting to go get food and there was never a time where you'd have to go by yourself.
• 40:06
  Crista Cowan: Okay, so not only the food, but actually having somebody with you at all times.
• 40:11
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, okay, asher, what about you?
• 40:16
  Asher Cowan: I liked that it wasn't super hot there and there was stuff to see and stuff to do.
• 40:22
  Asher Cowan: What was your favorite thing you saw?
• 40:24
  Crista Cowan: the glacier, glacier bay national park, even though you had to get up early yeah, it was early, but you could watch it from your bed sort of we have to get off the boat.
• 40:35
  Crista Cowan: We didn't have to get off the boat.
• 40:37
  Gabe Cowan: Good, I really liked like the shows and especially like the fireworks show, because it was not really like fireworks in the sky, it was like a show like with music and stuff, which was really cool.
• 40:48
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, we went to.
• 40:49
  Crista Cowan: On our very last night, we went to Butchert gardens in Victoria, british Columbia, which was also the first time that five of you had been out of the country on this trip.
• 40:58
  Crista Cowan: And yeah, that it was.
• 41:00
  Crista Cowan: It was really fun and beautiful and in a really great environment, although I'm still concerned about how they managed to do a whole firework show in the forest without setting it on fire.
• 41:11
  Crista Cowan: It's pretty impressive, finn.
• 41:14
  Crista Cowan: What about you?
• 41:17
  Phin Cowan: My favorite part was probably the play that was on the show that we watched.
• 41:26
  Crista Cowan: do you remember what it was called?
• 41:28
  Phin Cowan: um the choir of man choir of man.
• 41:30
  Crista Cowan: What was your favorite thing about it?
• 41:31
  Crista Cowan: The music okay, yeah, that was a.
• 41:34
  Crista Cowan: That was a very fun, very high energy show, uh, and it was all songs that you knew pretty much.
• 41:40
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, okay corb, um.
• 41:44
  Corbin Cowan: So during the trip I actually turned 20, so it was my birthday on the last day.
• 41:47
  Corbin Cowan: That was the day that we went to the bucart buder whatever that word is that the gardens there um, and we got to see the fireworks and that was really fun, because in my birthday here in america there's a lot of fireworks, especially in utah, because it's pioneer day right after um, and last year I didn't get to see fireworks just because of where I was on my birthday.
• 42:06
  Corbin Cowan: So it was fun to be able to see the fireworks on my birthday again this year and they were really cool and, like Gabe was saying, it wasn't just fireworks in the air but it was like a whole show with music and lights.
• 42:17
  Corbin Cowan: Did you think fireworks were for you when you were little?
• 42:21
  Corbin Cowan: I did.
• 42:22
  Corbin Cowan: And then, like when tangled came out, I'm like, oh, the lanterns for her, my fireworks.
• 42:26
  Corbin Cowan: So I love that.
• 42:29
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Yeah, okay, uh, let's see caitlin, I probably have to agree with finn the choir of men what?
• 42:36
  Crista Cowan: what was so moving about that for you music yeah, and tristan was great.
• 42:42
  Crista Cowan: Yep, it was a really great cast, very talented performers.
• 42:47
  Crista Cowan: Okay, andrew, you're up last Pancakes.
• 42:51
  Crista Cowan: Yep, how many pancakes do you think you ate on this trip?
• 42:56
  Crista Cowan: He's doing math.
• 42:58
  Andrew Cowan: Over 20.
• 42:59
  Crista Cowan: Over 20 pancakes in seven days.
• 43:01
  Crista Cowan: Well done you.
• 43:01
  Crista Cowan: I think that's impressive.
• 43:02
  Crista Cowan: I ate seven pancakes in Well done you.
• 43:03
  Crista Cowan: I think that's impressive.
• 43:04
  Andrew Cowan: I ate seven pancakes in one day.
• 43:06
  Crista Cowan: Whoa, I missed that day.
• 43:07
  Crista Cowan: Was that the day you went for second breakfast after we had breakfast all together?
• 43:12
  Crista Cowan: Yes, yeah, that was a running theme of this trip First breakfast, second breakfast, first lunch, second lunch, first dinner, second dinner and a midnight snack.
• 43:25
  Andrew Cowan: I also tried to eat eight pancakes.
• 43:29
  Crista Cowan: Well, seven is a respectable number.
• 43:30
  Crista Cowan: I love it.
• 43:33
  Crista Cowan: So thank you for sharing your favorite things about this trip.
• 43:39
  Crista Cowan: Now that we've come home and I know you haven't had a lot of time to think about it but do you view your relationships with your siblings or your cousins any differently because we've spent this time together?
• 43:50
  Levi Cowan: I'd say kind of, because for most people it would be like build the relationship because they're in like a tight space, but in our house no one really respects your space, so we're all on top of each other all the time anyways.
• 44:04
  Levi Cowan: So I guess in a way it did, because I'm living in the same room as all of them and usually I only share a room with one, but at the same time it was about the same as at our house.
• 44:15
  Levi Cowan: Okay.
• 44:16
  Crista Cowan: Tight quarters sometimes breed resentment and sometimes just breeds a little bit more love or at least more stories to tell.
• 44:25
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Anybody else.
• 44:25
  Kaitlyn Cowan: Well, I got to find a way to connect with everybody because, honestly, I'm not that into sports as most of the other people here, so it was nice to actually see everyone and talk to them, as we don't live close really.
• 44:41
  Crista Cowan: Yeah, you and your brother are at a little bit of a disadvantage because you've lived so far away for so much of your lives and I know you were nervous about that for this trip that you were gonna.
• 44:51
  Crista Cowan: I mean, a you're the only girl, and b you you don't know what you have in common with them, so I'm gonna put you on the spot just a little bit.
• 44:58
  Crista Cowan: What did you connect with each of them on?
• 45:02
  Kaitlyn Cowan: I think we're, and I just connected with being the oldest and the rowdiest.
• 45:07
  Kaitlyn Cowan: The other five yeah.
• 45:10
  Crista Cowan: You're both very much introverts and need your space and sometimes need to like get away from the noise and crazy.
• 45:16
  Crista Cowan: Okay, well, um, I love you all.
• 45:19
  Crista Cowan: I am so grateful to be your aunt.
• 45:21
  Crista Cowan: I am very grateful that you are each part of our family.
• 45:25
  Crista Cowan: You are all so very different and that's one of the things that I learned this week.
• 45:30
  Crista Cowan: I already knew it, but I think it was just reinforced how very different you are and yet how just wonderful each of you are in your own way.
• 45:40
  Crista Cowan: You are good, you are funny, you are interesting and I love spending time with you.
• 45:50
  Crista Cowan: So thank you for going on this trip with me this week, know even put up with the annoyances of living in tight quarters and the annoyances of sometimes clashing personalities so that we could spend that time together.
• 46:09
  Crista Cowan: That was important to me.
• 46:10
  Crista Cowan: So I love you.
• 46:12
  Gabe Cowan: Thank you, we love you too.
• 46:13
  Levi Cowan: We love you, we love you.