Grandma's 80th Birthday

My whole family travelled down south (a bit) to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday last weekend. My sisters and our families stayed with my Uncle Dwight and Aunt Carol in their gigantic house. Greg said it was better than a hotel! It's true. We had huge rooms to stay in, food a-plenty, a perfect little dog Rudy for the kids to chase around (sorry Rudy!), and Guitar Hero. What more could we ask for?

Cassie helping Sophie to get duded up for the party

Sophie and Aubrey coloring on placemats I made for the kids. There were at least 20 great-grandkids (out of roughly 50 people total), so the activity kept them from running around like hooligans...for about 5 minutes. Actually, Sophie literally did this all afternoon. She barely left her chair or looked up from the page. That's kind of how I respond to loud noise and chaos too.

Owen and my mom, Denna

Owen and Greg

Owen responded to all the chaos by hiding out in the hallway by the bathroom and watching from a safe distance.

He also really enjoyed the coloring sheet placemats. He also enjoyed coloring on himself.

Grandma Rosalie, the birthday girl, and my mom

My dad, Gordon, preparing to pray for lunch

Grandma

Owen, Sophie and Aubrey. Aubrey's wearing a hat she made--another craft I brought along to keep the 20+ kids busy. That also occupied them for about 5 minutes.

This is the family picture of all who attended Grandma's party that day. It includes my Grandma, 5 of her sons and daughters, their spouses, the grandkids and spouses, and the great-grandkids. Four generations, and technically, there are even more of us. Two sons and their kids and grandkids were unable to attend. Amazing! Grandma said later that she's glad we didn't have an open-house. Can you imagine?!

About 2 minutes after I took this picture, right before we left, Owen was slumped forward and sleeping on my dad.

We spent the rest of our evening back at Dwight and Carol's house where I was coerced (finally!) into playing Guitar Hero for the first time. I made everyone leave the room, but they eventually all trickled back in to watch the spectacle of it all. I'm certain that I dragged Cassie down, but as I got the hang of it, I actually had fun with it.

Watching the slideshow of all the pictures we took at the party the day before.