Thursday, January 22, 2009

Many memories with the Great Grandparents!

We were very fortunate this holiday to have the opportunity to visit Adam's family in California, MO to celebrate Christmas and his birthday. And, then Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Blankenship drove all the way to Detroit for the New Year. When we arrived in Missouri, Great Grandma had this sign posted on her front door.

We enjoyed seeing many of their friends at church. It is such a sweet congregation and we love visiting whenever we are in town.


Great Grandma had dinner for everyone to celebrate Adam's birthday. I am so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. Below is Great Aunt Sue carrying on a very meaningful conversation with Brooks. And, yes, our dogs cozied right up to her instantly. It was so great to see you Aunt Sue!



Since this was Brooks' first trip to California, he had many people to meet. Aunt Bobbie, below, made sure to get in her quality time. Good to see you too Aunt Bobbie...and you look fantastic!!








Brooks had so many gifts that they were literally oozing out from under the tree. Thank you so much for all of these great gifts. We are so grateful to have spent this first Christmas making memories with all of you!
Adam even enjoyed modeling some of Brooks' gifts... there's nothing like a man in a towel!



Brooks sure loves playing with his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa as you will see in many of the pictures below! I think it's possible that they might kinda like him a lot:)


They didn't have enough candles to buy at Pamida so we had to just cram as many as we could on Adam's requested Rubarb pie. Grandma...you did good!



Adam and I came home to Detroit from the holiday with the stomach flu. Well, Grandma and Grandpa had it too and had to drive all the way to Detroit with "uneasy" tummys. We were so excited to spend New Year's with you and we are forever in debt to you for driving our puppies home.

Although I say we spent New Year's together, that isn't really the case. We were all feeling so puny that we were all in bed way before midnight. So, in the morning, I made everyone put on the New Year's hats that I had bought so we could celebrate the coming year. You all are a pretty goodlooking crew, even on New Year's morning!!





As you can see, Brooks and Great Grandpa had a lot of fun playing "Giddie up horsie". Brooks was laughing out loud:) Grandpa would also take Brooks up to the mirror and Brooks loved to see his reflection. Grandpa, ever since you've been here, Brooks can't get enough of the mirror!


Below is Adam and Grandpa's attempt at making a bonfire with wet wood in the snow...Let's just say that the fire didn't last very long.


It's pretty special when your Great Grandma can crawl down on the floor with you and play with your Activity Gym:)


One on the nights they were here, we played cards and Great Grandma won for the first time!! She was so proud...two thumbs up Grandma:)

We are so happy to have all of these special memories throughout the holidays. As I've said before, we truly are blessed beyond measure to have such an amazing family and we thank God for you daily. Grandma and Grandpa, thank you so much for taking care of our puppies, even though they did leave a few "presents" behind at your house. But, we are so grateful for you...more than you will ever know. Brooks loves you so much and we can't wait to watch your relationships with him evolve over the years. We love you and miss you terribly!










Ooops...I forgot to put these last few pics in so I'm going to insert them here at the bottom. Below you will see that Adam talked Great Grandpa in to getting in the hot tub in the freezing cold weather. When they finally came inside, it took Grandpa a little while to recover. There's nothing like a hot tub on a cold day in Michigan...right Grandpa? :)






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