Grandpa turned 90 this weekend! To celebrate we had a big family gathering with all four of his children there, plus spouses, some grandchildren, and even great grandchildren! From all corners of the country people came to celebrate. It was so fun and, as always, I wish it could last a lot longer.
Just hanging out, enjoying the beautiful fall day, and waiting for the West Coast crowd to arrive.
As soon as everyone was in one place we organized for a family photo. (For a quick stroll down memory lane, check out the family picture from 10yrs ago, this sweet picture, or this incomplete but funny Christmas picture)
Greg suggested we all line up single file and then put our heads out on either side! I wish we had managed that picture! :)
Almost there…
What a good looking family!
Can’t be a Steuer/Collier/Johnson picture without a bit of silly at the end!
After we managed a lovely family photo Rosy headed home (she’d had enough already!! Just kidding, really she had to work) and the rest of us hung out, chatted, cooked, set tables, slide down stairs, checked out Minecraft sites, drank wine, and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.
There are a lot of tall guys in this family! Greg was trying to get Eve to do a silly thing that we used to love doing as kids, but Eve was plenty silly all on her own!
Getting dinner set up.
The BEST photo bomb!
Like father, like daughter. Silliness definitely runs in this family!
Time for presents! Eve made Popcube a puzzle for his birthday present. Earlier in the week she was thinking about presents and asked me what kinds of things he liked doing. One of the things I said was puzzles, but I told her that at 90 years old it’s hard for him to do puzzles with tiny pieces like he used to. She thought about it and decided to make him a puzzle with large pieces that he could do easily.
Popcube opening Eve’s present.
After presents and cards we all headed downstairs for dinner. We had two kinds of lasagne, three kinds of bread, salad, and desserts. We worked hard on that meal and everyone enjoyed.
Sitting down for dinner.
I like taking pictures of people taking pictures. :) It looks like there was a serious discussion going on in the foreground!
Oh Greg! (What you can’t see here is Eve, on the other side of Alan, making the exact same face!)
Happy Birthday Grandpa!! We decided to go easy on him and only give him one candle instead of ninety.
I like this picture, despite the blurry. He was just so happy all day.
A birthday pie by Mema. I suggested she put “90” on there, and she took it to a whole other Grandpa-inspired level. (So many blurry photos. :( )
Lex started a new dining trend.
It caught on quickly.
Uh oh! Someone gave Greg a weapon! Take it outside boys, take it outside. (and they did, and they had a blast!)
Goodbye hugs, still silly. Greg finally talked her into putting her arms like that so he could lift her and fly her around. I tried to get a picture of that, but it was all too blurry!
In celebration of Grandpa’s 90th, the moon decided to put on a show! It was a full moon, a harvest moon, a blood moon, and a lunar eclipse. I feel like I’m forgetting something too. Apparently only happens every 18 years or so. We decided to stay up late and watch it. Everyone was excited (except tired me) and we bundled up and brought out the lawn chairs. I enjoyed it too. Shhh, don’t tell. At 10:11pm the moon was fully covered and turning red. We loudly discussed astronomy and displayed our complete ignorance of moon cycles and such things for the whole neighborhood to hear. :) I think we all need to go back to school!
My camera clearly is not up to snuff for night photography!
Super harvest blood moon lunar eclipse! Google it for much better photos. :)
A blurry, blurry close up.
We were too tired to stick around for the un-eclipsing of the moon so we headed in for bed. I thought the shadow would keep moving right across the moon, but I kept checking as I was getting the kids into bed and getting myself ready for bed, and that red moon stayed steady for a long time. (Lots of good information about it here…. I should read it myself some day!)
The next day was a school day so the kids went to school and I had errands to do. Most everyone else went to lunch at Mickey’s and hung out for the day. Someone else will have to share photos of that. Mom sent me this picture of Grandpa with his new puzzle. :) I love it!
Popcube completed Eve’s puzzle. A drawing of him, wearing his red Scrabble sweatshirt, and holding a green airplane.
I hope we have many, many more happy occasions to celebrate as a big extended family. I’m chomping at the bit to get out West again myself. I’m hoping I can make that happen next summer. Maybe I’ll started a GoFundMe campaign. ;)
Thank you Tessa! They’re really good pictures!
Happy birthday Popcube!!!!
Even better with text! Love you….
i love it. thank you so much for posting this, i wish i was there. i love you and all yall!