We headed up to Coeur d'Alene yesterday to celebrate my Grandma turning 80 this year. We had a pretty good turnout altogether. From my grandparents down to the youngest great-grandchild, there are 80+ people. My guess is, about 65 showed up for the big day. The last time we took a group photo was in 2005, and we've grown considerably since then. I wouldn't classify this as a family reunion, just family getting together for a late lunch. It is always so much fun and a lot of laughs!
We took this at the end, so we are already missing at least one family from the day. . .
We took this at the end, so we are already missing at least one family from the day. . .
Joe has been working on a slideshow of all of my grandma's old photos, along with some photos from each family to present after dinner. It was so much fun to hear Grandma's commentary and there were photos of everyone over multiple Christmases and Easters and birthdays and graduations. (And a lot of big hair and peg-legged jeans :).
Mexican potluck. This is half the room. . .
. . .and the other half. Several years ago we had to start taking our party to the local Grange Hall. No home was big enough to suit, but this fits quite nicely.
Joe and I had so much fun working with all of Grandma's pictures. She really is a remarkable woman. All of her children said a little something about her that they really appreciated from their years with her and it was so amazing to me what a positive influence she made on her children in forming their attitude towards life and daily challenges. I have so much respect for that generation as a whole, the ones who grew up during the Great Depression and came of age just as the US joined World War II, and then went on to raise the Baby Boom generation. I would have liked to tell her that much more eloquently than I did. This woman raised six children, grew and canned the vegetables, sewed the clothes, baked the bread, pressed the drapes, weeded the garden, and still had time to make each kid a special cake on their birthday, line them up for countless group photos (in their coordinated clothing and curled hair and smiles, no less!), and still have dinner on the table by noon every day!
And at this point in her life, she still manages to make the trip down to visit all her brand-new grandkids within a week of their birth!
I love her sense of adventure and her spunk! And I love what she passed on to my mom in her hard-working and cheerful attitude!
As my Grandma would say, "Spring always comes!"
Isn't that nice?
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