California Birthday Bash- Part 1

This year my Grandma Joy celebrated her 75th birthday!  We were invited to celebrate her special day with her in California where she lives.  Of course, we couldn't go.  That would be crazy!  But, if you know us, you'll know why our new family catchphrase has been, "That's crazy... and we know crazy!"  Indeed we do, which is why we went!!!  (well, actually, we went because we wanted to see Grandma and the rest of the family so much and because God provided a way :-)

So we bought plane tickets for all SIX of us and headed out to California!  I cannot even begin to tell you how excited the kids were to fly on an airplane and see everyone.  I think they may have even been excited to go through security (since I prepped them on each stage of the trip, it was like a fun field trip to the airport :-)  Here we are waiting at the gate.  The kids are playing their new favorite game Sequence for Kids:

How did the baby do on the plane you might wonder?  Unbelievably well!  He fell asleep during take-off and did great on the plane.  Sooo nice since there's really nowhere to go!  When we got to California, we went to my Uncle Kip and Aunt Sandy's beach condo that they let us stay at for free! HUGE blessing!  We had a great time playing air hockey, playing with toys (like Etch-A-Sketch), and walking to the beach.

After we got settled in, we went over to Grandma Joy's house.  My parents were there so it was nice to see them all!  Here are the kids with Grandma Joy:

The next day was the birthday party.  It had been about six years since we had seen most of my family so many of them had not met Micah, Verity, or Josiah.  It was great to see everyone and celebrate Grandma Joy's special day!  Josiah really hit it off with his Uncle Jeremy.  In fact he was so comfortable with his uncle, that he fell asleep in his arms!

There were a ton of kids at the party so my Aunt Sandy put together goodie bags filled with all kinds of toys, including fun sunglasses, inflatable instruments, and, of course, fake mustaches!  The last pic is Verity with her cousin Savannah who are two months apart.  The bags were a huge hit!

It was a great chance to learn more about Grandma Joy (including her favorite song, Side By Side) and to experience important family times together... like dancing the Macarena :-).

No, I didn't dance The Macarena.  But you can see who did! 

Two other pics I have to share are this one of me with my FLOWER GIRL, Bethany, who is fourteen, beautiful, and (to my mom's great amusement) taller than me :-)

And last but not least a picture of four of the great-grandchildren who were born within six weeks of each other last April/May!

from left to right: Cooper, Avery, Grandma, Landon, and Josiah

There is much more to share, but I'll have to do that in future installments.  Overall, the party was a great success and we had a wonderful time!  (and Grandma, if you're reading this, I have copies of these pictures that you should receive shortly :-)