Grandma Vi's 90th Birthday Party (April 25)

Oh man is this post a LONG time in the coming. I had every intention of getting all my digital scrap booking completed and being able to do this justice, but truthfully, that is just not going to happen. I'll be lucky if I finished these pages by the time the snow is falling.

But what I DO have complete is all my photo editing, which I somehow managed to complete even with my little boys feeling that 9:30pm is an appropriate bedtime, since, you know, "It's not bed time, Mama - it's not dark yet!"

Three weeks ago, a large chunk of the Johnson clan gathered together at Lakeside Church (formerly "First Baptist") in Worthington to celebrate one particularly incredible woman: Mark's Grandma Vi. I feel so incredibly blessed to have married into a family full of such a wonderful legacy, and this woman is the matriarch that started it all.

Vi turned ninety years old, and I'm going to be honest and say that if I can even look as awesome as she does when I'm 70, I'll be happy. And if I can be half as incredible as she is in my lifetime, I'd consider that a HUGE win.

Photo credit: Drew Johnson

It's hard to believe that this is only about half of Mark's immediate family, as his brother and sister and their families weren't able to make it.

Photo credit: Drew Johnson

It's also hard to believe that our tiny little family has grown so much! Our boys adore Grandma Vi!

It was so fun to see these ladies (cousins and cousins' wives), even if we hardly get the chance to visit at family events these days. It was also SO FUN to meet the newest Johnson boys (the youngest pictured below), born just a couple months apart. We missed Kirsten in this one since she hadn't arrived yet - boo!

We also missed Mark's Aunt, who had put SO MUCH work into this party (seriously - hours upon hours upon hours), and then had an unfortunate injury the night before the party :( I think it's safe to say that all her work certainly paid off, as it was a beautiful party, but we were so sad for her that she didn't get to enjoy it :( I mean, any party with party hats is a success, right?

One of the things I love about Vi is that she's all about breaking the rules. She wrote in a letter to us last week that she got such a kick out of seeing Cashel's eyes when she dipped her finger into the cake. We had been telling him that he wasn't to touch the cake, and oh.my.goodness! haha :)

What was really my favorite part, though, was to see Grandma's reaction to the book.

Photo credit: Drew Johnson

I felt so incredibly humbled to be able to give her this book of memories. She is such an incredible woman, and I feel like somehow I know her more deeply than before after having this opportunity to put a small piece of her history in her hands. (Not that it helped me at ALL with the quiz we took on her haha)

Here's the whole group of 30 of us who made it for the big party! It is crazy to think that we were still missing 13 (and a half - come on, baby Jase!!) and to realize just how much this family has grown since I joined it in 2006. My oh my does life ever grow and change and evolve over time: Grandma Vi is a testament to that!

Photo credit: Drew Johnson