If 9 is fine, then 90 is, well...

ten times better. ;)

This last weekend, we had the privilege of celebrating the 90th birthday of Ben's grandpa, 

who we lovingly know as "Poppy".

So, we hopped in our little loaner (Ben was the 3rd car in a 4 car pile-up a few weeks back), 

and drove for about a billion hours to LA.

But it was worth every minute of it.

Now, even though this weekend was chalk full of fun, like

the best cupcake/ice cream combos ever (note to self: throw party in order to serve cupcakes)

swim date with cool cousins

late showing of "Hop" (don't ask the mom though, she slept through it ;)

shopping at the American Girl store

followed by shopping at P Barn Kids

and amazing photo opps of 75 friends, relatives and loved ones celebrating Poppy's 90 years on Earth,

I somehow didn't manage to take pictures of any of it.

But what did I manage to take a photo of?

 Poppy's cake. ;)

    Oh and this pretty smokin' speaker at the party. ;)

One of my fav photos of Poppy (on the right) and his brother-in-law (Poppy's late wife's brother),

who brought tears to everyone's eyes when he thanked Poppy for loving his sister and taking such good care of her every day they had together. ♥

Ben leading us in a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday"...

in English and Spanish.

Gwen was in heaven.

And then Poppy took the mic. ;)

This is Poppy's most natural state.

He loves God and he loves telling others about God's love.

He is overflowing with charisma and it has been said that, 

"Poppy loves his children, but he really loves his grandchildren."

Now imagine how much he loves his great-grandchildren. ;)

Aaaand, Poppy sometimes has a tough time hearing.

So, you put all that love, charisma and hard of hearing together, and you get one

really loud proclaimer of God's love embodied in this 90 year young man.

In fact, we've told our kids on a number of occasions, 

"Poppy isn't yelling at you, he's just telling you how much he loves you... in really loud Spanish".

Now, I really can't put into words how meaningful our time was this last weekend.

And heaven forbid, I take any pictures that would show the 4 generations... together

but I did manage to snap this pic, of a certain little boy that we think is pretty neat,

with one of his favorite big boy cousins.

Yes, it was a good weekend.

May we all live to have 90 years full of weekends such as these.

We love you Poppy! ♥