Great Aunt Gen's 90th B-day Party

We made a fun trip today to celebrate my Great Aunt Gen's 90th birthday. It was held at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. There was a nice place for the event and the sand was literally right out the door for the kiddos to play in. It was a catered affair with hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, green salad, pork and beans, and of course cake, cookies and ice cream. Aunt Gen has been a very loving lady to all of us and it was quite a turn out! All of my mother's cousins came and all but 3 of my cousins (on my mom's side) came to the event. It was nice to catch up with many of them and to see my Aunts and Uncles as well. Being a mom though, I didn't get to talk as much as I would have liked and we had to leave a bit early and skip out on the dinner out with the crew as our little ones had no real nap (other than the 40 minute one on the way there) all day. Needless to say, we had cranky, overtired babes afterward and had some trouble getting them settled in for the night. However, we were glad to make the trip and see all the folks!

This is Josiah with my cousin Lynne's daughter, Lily. I thought this was the cutest as they both have this very shy look on their faces! Precious!! This is the first time they have really interacted with each other. Technically they have met before, but they were just babies then and had no idea they met. :)

Caleb must always give his characteristic Caleb boy expression wherever we go! We took this soon after we got to the beach.

Daniel DID NOT like the sand at first! He fell in the sand and got it all over his hands and then was shaking his hands furiously to get it off. He had this furrowed brow look for a while and kept trying to get out of the sand and get back in the building with all the people. That's my boy!! He eventually got used to the sand though and seemed to like it better after a while.

This is a wonderful shot of Josiah enjoying the sand. He liked it immediately and kept saying how he loved going to the beach. He and Daddy went down to the waterfront and Daddy showed him how to skip rocks. Unfortunately, Josiah's aim isn't all that great and Lily walked in front when Josiah skipped a rock into the back of her head. Thankfully, he is also not all that strong yet and she wasn't hurt!! We nixed the rock throwing after that though for a bit! Later, Josiah and I collected broken shells and rocks on the beach. He proudly exclaimed, "We're cleaning up the beach, Momma!"

Here is Lily, my cousin Jonathan (far left), the twins & Josiah playing in the sand. We brought our dump truck and various other sand toys to play with. Jonathan and Josiah had a great time digging holes and filling them back up again together!

These are a few of my cousins having a good laugh! From left to right, Lauren, Erin, Lynne (and Renna her baby), Karla & Karla's boyfriend Johnny.