Still Soaking It In...

 I'm still allowing this weekend to soak in. I know I don't have the right words to capture the blessing that was this trip, but I think the pictures capture a little bit of it.

 

Friday, we headed North to celebrate Granddaddy's 90th birthday. The entire family came together, which is a feat in and of itself. Saturday, Issa and Evan spent the day playing with Tyler the Huge and wandering among family houses. I remember doing the same wandering when I was little, and I love that they get to experience that now.

 

On Saturday afternoon, though, we started the festivities at Aunt Carol's with a swim:

 

I had two very happy little fish:

We had a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa Luzny, and most of the crew was able to attend. Aunt Carol and Uncle Todd even surprised our birthday princess with cupcakes:

After all of the kids were sufficiently sugared up, it was back out to the pool:

All of the littles ended up back in the water, and Molly and I decided to join as well. It was c-c-cold, but it was so fun to swim with all of these little people:

 Sunday, the real party started. Becca did Issa's hair for the occasion:

 And we spent the majority of the day cooking and setting tables. Shannon did the impossible and managed to create space for all 26 of us to sit within two rooms and eat together. Before we ate, though, we took pictures.

The trio:

 My girl and her pup:

 

My boy being my boy:

All of the littles playing nicely, not getting dirty:

 It's amazing how the seven littles see each other so rarely and are still such good friends. It takes about ten minutes to remember who they are, and then it's like they play together every day. It makes my heart happy.

And this photo, well...

 And this one...

 I'm teary again just looking at them. The fact that all 26 of us were able to celebrate this man, and that each of us had the opportunity to talk with him one on one, hear more stories, and be given a written copy of so many of his stories, well...that's a gift, and my heart is glad.