50th Anniversary

The second half of the weekend was spent in Illinois for my grandparents' 50th anniversary. I really liked how we celebrated it. No huge party, just the whole family making it a priority to be there, going to church together Sunday morning, and then out for lunch afterwards. We really did have a good time just visiting and catching up. I wish we could have been there earlier- it seemed a rather short trip, since we got in at about 1:30 Sunday morning, and left again Sunday afternoon! It had been a long time since I had seen this side of the family, and I got to introduce myself to the newest members of it! That is Aidan that Grandma is holding... he is my, well, I'm really not sure. He's my cousin's son, so I think that makes him my second cousin, but I'm not sure. He's pretty adorable, either way. He's a very serious baby, and he watches everything. Apparently, he is also a puker, which I didn't know until I held him for the first time and he let loose with a string of white baby spit-up all down the front of my black shirt... just in time for family pictures! :) I also got to hold my new cousin, Max, who is the redhead in the picture. Most of the time I saw him, Max was sleeping. But his red hair is really cute, and he's apparently a hard sleeper, because we passed him to about 4 different people and he never woke up! :) Anyway, I had a good time visiting with aunts and uncles and cousins that I don't get to see very often. That side of the family is so big that we are rarely all together, and this weekend we had almost everyone. We were all bummed that Jess and Mike couldn't make it, but who can blame them after their hellacious trip home from London! This is a bad time to have to be traveling! The really good thing about the weekend, besides seeing all of the family, was that I actually got the frames I was working on finished, and I think everyone liked them. I had everyone mail me pictures, and I put pictures of the whole family into two frames for Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa Hook always had one of those above their organ, and I thought it was so cool to see the whole family all together. So it seeemed like a good 50th anniversary present! Anyway, it was a great, if tiring, weekend... Congratulations Grandma and Grandpa, and thanks for everything you have done and been for all of us!