Lava Monster - Cousin Love

The other day Chad posted a vague statement on his G+ "Everybody knows 'don't touch the lava'"!  At the time, I had no idea what he was talking about.  I thought it was some movie or tv reference that I didn't understand.  It wasn't until he mentioned at dinner that I understood.  He was referring to a childhood game we all played - Don't Touch the Lava.  Think about it - you did, didn't you?
He made a good point - it was one of those games that you thought you made up on your own, but yet everyone you know played it too.

In our family it was called Lava Monster.  We played it in my grandma's basement.  The floor was the lava (but it didn't kill you...strange) and the couches were "safe".  One person was the Lava Monster and their goal was to stop you from moving from one end of the basement to the other.  If you used the floor (lava) to travel, you were fair game, but if you hopped from couch to couch, they couldn't touch you.  I guess, essentially, it was tag for a small, confined space.
I played a similar game in elementary school gym - Spiders and Flies.  The flies had to run from one end of the gym to the other without getting tagged by the spiders.  We are the spiders. We are the flies.  We're going to get you.  Let's see you try!  Wow.  I can't believe I just remembered that, since the last time I played it was 1995....

Anyway, back to lava monster - Did you play some variation of Don't Touch The Lava?  What were your rules?

Oh.  And I just found this. See? Chad was right.

Thinking back to it also makes me a little sad.  Growing up, my cousins were my best friends.  I had 12 cousins on my mom's side and 6 on my dad's.  Miles will only have cousins if my sister has kids, and she lives in Tennessee, so they won't get to just hang out like we did with our cousins growing up.  That makes me sad for him.

Sunshine, Mackenzie, Alissa, Elana, Andrea, Chad, Tara, Jacob, Samantha, Dominic, Ryan, Dylan, Jason, Joseph, Steven, Stefanie, Jackie, & Matt (and Caitlin who is not technically my cousin, but who is their cousin) - I love and miss you all so much.
And the new cousins that have joined us recently - Charles, Travis, Diana, Mike, Abbey, Cora, Avery, Bella, Joey, & Aidan (and soon-to-be baby Scanlon) - I love you like you were all my "real" cousins, too!