This past weekend Rus and I and the kids were able to make the four and a half hour drive to Flagstaff (in six hours) to celebrate my Grandpa's 88th birthday with my brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. It was so fun! Here are my grandparents and my mom and three of her four brothers (Bill, Casey, and Jerry).
Tyler was in charge of making the birthday cake(s), and he did a FANTASTIC, DELICIOUS job! I thought he was brilliant to use bundt and angel food cake pans to make the "88". You're looking at two angel food cakes (one covered in a chocolate ganache), a citrus chiffon cake, and a triple chocolate bundt cake. omigosh. Amazing.
My sister Amy was so wonderful to completely lend her home for the weekend. I think there were about forty of us total. One of the nights we wound up having dinner in her backyard and decided to see who weighed more...my nieces and nephews or my cousins. I think it was a tie. My kids are in yellow, Amy's boys are in purple, and Amanda's kids are in red. I was so happy at how well all the kids played together. Bekah and Jacob were entertained the entire time. And my cousins loved playing with all the little kids.
My uncle Bill with Beau. I haven't been able to spend time with my uncles for a couple years now at least, so after they got done rubbing that in, they were a lot of fun to hang out with. ;) And their wives kept stealing my baby, so I was good with that. :)
My cousins Matt, Alex, and Nick brought an air compressor and generator to the park and launched rockets for us. It was awesome! Rus would have to give you the details of how it all worked, but basically the rockets were made of 1 or 2 liter soda bottles with fins glued on, and they went..um..really high, and the kids loved to try and catch them when they came down. Here's a fun pic of the actual launch.
Rus and I were happy to be able to stay and Clay and Mary Hartman's home there in Flag. Clay and Mary are Rus's uncle and aunt and we are their adopted son and daughter, and thus our children are always welcome in their home. We're glad they put up with us too. ;)
Rus is now convinced that we need a zip line in our backyard, because Amy has one in her's and Jacob and Bekah both loved it. Jacob completely monopolized it whenever he could. He'd scare off the other kids by grunting at them if they got too close.
Here is my Grandma Hansen and Amy's Sarah holding Beau. I mentioned that our drive took a little longer than it was supposed to, and that's due to Jacob having to pee twice "in the grass!" (on the side of the road), Beau needing to eat twice, and having to stop for lunch. Needless to say, Beau was happy to get out of his carseat and be held by a doting grandma.
Okay. And here was the BEST part of the whole weekend. Check out my dad's face...
And my Mom's face...
And that's because JAMES came! We were all totally, completely, and happily surprised to see James just show up in the doorway of Amy's house. Amy and I had matching little shrieks. "Ahh!" He said that he got the invite for Grandpa's party and booked his flight that day. I was so impressed that he would do that for our Grandpa. So here's a blurry me and James.
Ahhh..so here's to a great weekend, and to my awesome grandparents who started it all!
My uncle Bill with Beau. I haven't been able to spend time with my uncles for a couple years now at least, so after they got done rubbing that in, they were a lot of fun to hang out with. ;) And their wives kept stealing my baby, so I was good with that. :)
My cousins Matt, Alex, and Nick brought an air compressor and generator to the park and launched rockets for us. It was awesome! Rus would have to give you the details of how it all worked, but basically the rockets were made of 1 or 2 liter soda bottles with fins glued on, and they went..um..really high, and the kids loved to try and catch them when they came down. Here's a fun pic of the actual launch.
Rus and I were happy to be able to stay and Clay and Mary Hartman's home there in Flag. Clay and Mary are Rus's uncle and aunt and we are their adopted son and daughter, and thus our children are always welcome in their home. We're glad they put up with us too. ;)
Rus is now convinced that we need a zip line in our backyard, because Amy has one in her's and Jacob and Bekah both loved it. Jacob completely monopolized it whenever he could. He'd scare off the other kids by grunting at them if they got too close.
Here is my Grandma Hansen and Amy's Sarah holding Beau. I mentioned that our drive took a little longer than it was supposed to, and that's due to Jacob having to pee twice "in the grass!" (on the side of the road), Beau needing to eat twice, and having to stop for lunch. Needless to say, Beau was happy to get out of his carseat and be held by a doting grandma. 
Okay. And here was the BEST part of the whole weekend. Check out my dad's face...
And my Mom's face...
And that's because JAMES came! We were all totally, completely, and happily surprised to see James just show up in the doorway of Amy's house. Amy and I had matching little shrieks. "Ahh!" He said that he got the invite for Grandpa's party and booked his flight that day. I was so impressed that he would do that for our Grandpa. So here's a blurry me and James.
Ahhh..so here's to a great weekend, and to my awesome grandparents who started it all!
3 comments:
What a party! I love when family just shows up unexpectedly...it creates this sense of 'woah, this is what it's all about.' Glad you didn't get teased too much! Shouldn't you be used to it by now? You are the baby after all!! ;)
Looks like a lot of fun. And man Tyler's cakes look yummy! He always was such a good cook.
Laura
So are you sharing pictures? It was good to see you. thanks for helping everyone have fun.
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