Family

We had a visit from Great Grandpa & Grandma a few weeks ago. Grace had just woken up from a nap and would have preferred Mama, but Great Grandma kept her distracted enough to get over it. ;)

Great Grandpa lights up when babies are around (or young kids in general). Reminds me a lot of my Great Grandpa Cecil.

Mama...why aren't you holding me??

Did you say something, Grandma Mary?

What??? You can't be serious!

Of course Isaac said, "Mom! Take my picture!" as soon as he saw my camera!

It seems every time MIA is over, the kids end up in a giant wrestling match!

Look out for Isaac...

He's going in for the kill...

And he's outta there! Looks like Mia is getting sent to the moon, too!

Grace is getting braver with pulling up to stand.

And definitely braver with the rocking chair!!

She now has enough hair to have a bad hair day!! Hahaha!

I'm not sure how much longer Isaac is going to like Grace sitting on him, but for now...he thinks it's hilarious!

Grace is NOT a fan of the new baby gate.

One afternoon, I noticed that it was pretty warm in the house so I went to turn the AC down, only to find that it was set at 77* and it was 80* in the house! We checked the breaker, but it wasn't flipped. Aaron went outside to check out the unit to find this. The pipe was frozen. :( Dad suggested replacing the insulation on the pipe and making sure the filter was clean. Turns out it had been quite a while since the filter had been cleaned! Whoops. I left it off for a couple of hours, but it still wasn't blowing very cold air. Thank the Lord, the evening was a rare cool summer evening. I opened the windows and we were pretty comfortable for the night. By morning, the AC was ice cold again. Lesson learned...don't forget to clean the filter!!

Guess who loves frozen blueberries??

65 Years

Last month, Grandpa & Grandma had their 65th anniversary. We had a celebration last weekend for family with about 40 people. They have 17 grandchildren and over 20 great-grandchildren, so only about half of the family was there! Grandpa & Grandma wanted it to be low-key (as low-key as it gets with my family! ha). It was a wonderful time, sitting around visiting, laughing, and spending time together. As Uncle Alan shared, he remembered as a kid looking forward to the times they would go to spend with cousins and all they did was sit around and visit. It's so much fun to walk down memory lane and hear the stories from 3 generations (well, I guess only 2 generations really shared stories). Even after 32 years, there are still stories I've never heard before!

Mom and Dad brought down BBQ brisket and rolls and everyone else brought sides, so it was a plethora of delicious food, as always.

Lovely cake and beautiful flowers.

The boys with their parents. Carolyn wasn't able to come-they live near some of the fires in Colorado so they had to stay home and keep an eye on their home. They have also been helping take care of the firefighters.

 6 of the 17 grandchildren. So many fun memories with these guys!! (Teresa, Susan, me, Scott, Jeremy, & Megan)

 15 of the 21 (I think?) great-granchilren! Back: Hunter, Kaedyn, Anna, Parker, Rhys, Mia Middle: Daniel, Jacob, Addison Front: Isaac, Grandpa and Anika, Grandma and Ella, Asher, Leah, Bryce

 Anna and her "new" cousin Audrey. Fellow horse-lovers are best buddies now :)

 Grandpa's nieces, sisters Vicki and Cherie, came down from Iowa.

 Another of Grandpa's nieces, Shirley and husband Bruce, came as well to celebrate! I love this picture :)

 Cousins with Uncle Elmer and Aunt Mary. Oh the stories they told! So much laughter.

 The "outlaws" haha! Alisha, Dusty, Warene, Nona, Dona, Aaron, and Amy

 Dusty and Anika (who looks exactly like her Mama!!).

 Rhys and Papa (Anna took some of these pictures)

 Audrey loved holding baby Ella!

 Silly Bryce!

 Is he on a roller coaster??

 Siblings Asher and Addison

 So Dad asked Uncle Randall and Grandpa to re-enact a story from Randall's childhood. The story is that Grandpa and Randall had a race from the house to the mailbox. The first race, Grandpa won because Randall got to laughing at something and couldn't run. So Randall wanted a rematch. This time, Grandpa was losing! So he tried to grab Randall's shirt...only he missed the shirt and wound up on the ground with a tear in his suit pants! 

 We sat around for quite a while taking turns sharing memories.

 There was a lot of laughter as the children and nieces told stories about growing up!

 What a legacy these two precious people have! A legacy of love and faith, in the midst of happy times and times of sorrow. I can only pray that one day we have the same legacy to hand down to the next 3 generations!