Long overdue.

I have been waiting for this post until I got the pictures I wanted to put with it. On New Year's day we packed up and headed out west for my Grandpa Wayne's 89th birthday party. My favorite aunt arranged a wonderful surprise party for him. It has been WAY too long since I have been back to that part of the Sooner state and I was as happy as sand burr in some one's sock to get back there. (A nod to the pesky little suckers that can ruin your day in a hurry!) My favorite aunt and uncle have been hard at work remodeling their house and it looked AWESOME! I can't believe it is the same house we used to run through with the pink Barbie car and cap guns. I hope to get a video up of our kids carrying on the tradition. I ate more fudge and homemade goodies in the few days we were there than I did all last year. Mmmm, my favorite aunt knows the way to my heart!

My mom worked REALLY hard on a DVD for Grandpa. She scanned every single picture that we have from Grandma's collection and put them to music. I loved going through and picking out just the right songs for each family. The DVD ended up being 2 hours long and we were really worried that Grandpa wouldn't be able to see it. Enter Grandpa. I have to tell him who I am because his vision is pretty bad especially when he just comes inside. As soon as he figured out it was me, he grabbed me and squeezed me so tight. At that moment, I regretted staying away so long. Yes, it is hard to travel almost 8 hours in the car with two young children. Yes, it's hard for them to be away from home and be totally out of their routine. But yes, it is worth it. I cried as he hugged me more and I remembered, we aren't promised tomorrow. As I type this, I miss my Grandpa.

We turned on the DVD and he immediately saw his picture from World War 2 and then one of him and Grandma. I cried more because I was SO thankful that he was seeing the fruits of my mom's labor! He LOVED it! I put together a VERY condensed slide show of the old pictures that I think are amazing. I can't wait to blow them up and fill my house with my family history.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

(P.S. My dad was holding cousin Christie in his graduation pic, not Mike!)

The party was wonderful. The cake was SO TASTY as usual, thanks to my favorite you know who!!! Cohen loved wheeling "Great Papa" around in his wheel chair. There is something about little boys and "old folks." They just seem to have so much to talk about. He wanted to sit on his lap and love all over him! Grandpa was loving it until he lost what little circulation he has in his legs thanks to my 40 pound two year old! I will forever treasure the picture we got of ALL of us at the party! It isn't very often we are all together and I am so thankful we have a picture!