My Mom’s birthday

I wasn’t able to go to see my mom the weekend closest to her birthday so you already saw the post about my visit with her.  The following weekend was closer to her birthday and both my sisters were there to give her a special luncheon with a few special friends and the grandkids that were able to come.

Yes, she turned 90 this year!  Lovely & happy!

 

Our Miss K decided in the last days to make a quick run to see Grandma and the cousins.  So after work on Saturday night, she drove to Ohio and landed hard in her bed at the hotel nearby, sometime in the middle of the night.  But the Sunday events started at church with Grandma and she was there at 9-0-0 on the dot, she said!  K’s note to me after church was that *I* looked MUCH younger.  During greeting time, the pastor made a special announcement about Grandma’s birthday and so much family was there. This is the church where I grew up, so many could recognize K as being mine but don’t know her well.  She said she oft repeated she was mine as an introduction.

 

After church, 3 great-grands came to see her at the organ —

My cousin did a lot of special flowers for church and then they were used at the luncheon.  She has her mother’s touch!  So lovely!!

“Mr. E”, Mrs. E (my niece), and Miss K at lunch —

Special ones and my cousin that were there as well as the family —

Family —

 

Beautiful desserts by Mrs. E!

That evening at my brother’s — my 2 sisters —

and the rest of the gang~ 
From the reports, my mom had a wonderful day!  She’ll note how many cards she got and I’ll update this…. but not quite one per year!

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Road Trip

The end of July brought all 4 of us together.

In the car.

Away from home.

Overnights.

The last time that happened was in 2004 when we went to South Dakota.   So much has changed since then…  Life on the farm and in the family has changed to the point of making outings nearly impossible.  I am not a very good long-distance traveler this year.    And all of us have jobs that don’t have vacation pay.  All this piled in but we did it!

Everyone got in a day’s work (or partial) and we headed through the big city around 8 p.m.

Phil & I love the kids and love spending time with them.  We cherished all the moments we had with the 4 of us.  (Phil was super glad to have 2 willing drivers!!)

The destination was camp for my side’s family reunion.  We spent more time sitting in the car to get there & back than awake at the reunion.

My mom & the 4 of us at the campfire.

 

 

All of 4 generations were there but 2 (+ 2 spouses) of the cousin (3rd) generation.

Saturday morning —

Saturday afternoon slip & slide.  Here go my 3 (you can click on the photo to see it larger) —

And back up the hill to do it again!

I got to hold the youngest model.  🙂  We gained 2 wee ones in 2013!  I was glad he was still at the pass-the-baby stage but more like the size & weight of wrestling with a 4-legged cinder block that wants to steal your nose!  

3/4 of the girl cousins —  A&E with my K

 

 

 

 

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Cousins Christmas Dinners

It was fun to see a photo of Phil’s cousin and all his children & grands gathered for their Christmas (I think on 12/29) that I requested we have a photo shoot this time too when we gathered on 12/30.   Actually, Phil’s cousin is only a few years younger than Phil’s dad so we are closer in age to the 1st cousins, once-removed.

US:

Phil’s parents in the middle with our side on the far right and his sister and family on the far left.

THEM:

Phil’s cousin is on the far right of the couch, with his wife and their 2 children.  The daughter-in-law and son-in-law and the grandkids are in front & behind.

The curly hair comes from their grandmother and is most evident in our daughter and his daughter and her girls.  There is one other male cousin to carry the name between these 2 but I’ve only seen him twice as he lives in TX.  I think he just has a daughter.

(L will probably pick a fight with me the next time we see each other as he goes by “Mike”, not his given name that we all use.  🙂  He is funny.)

Phil’s dad and L’s dad and one other brother were all raised here on the family farm.  Only Phil’s dad stayed here to farm.

Both L & Phil had 1 son to carry the name and L’s son has 1 son.  L & his wife are only about 45 mins away but we sure don’t see them much with all of us having grown children that we hog over their holiday visits.  But it is always fun to gather for family parties or the random spotting of them while out shopping.

Sometimes I think not using all their names makes this more confusing.  Sorry!

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