Century Minus a Decade

Grandpa's Birthday Cake

Grandpa and Grandma at Yen Ching

My grandpa will be turning 90 in a couple of weeks so over Christmas break while everyone was off of school we decided to celebrate his birthday. We got together on the 2nd and had a wonderful party for him. Everyone was there except for the three cousins who are on missions. We started out with the task of taking family pictures. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Laurel took the pictures of everyone and then used the timer to get all of us together. After the pictures we went to Yen Ching, the best Chinese place ever, for a great dinner. All the older cousins sat at a table together which was tons of fun.
Geoff getting the perks of being an MC

Geoff was put in charge of the program so we planned all sorts of fun/embarrassing things for our parents to do since they pawned it all off on us. I think the restaurant was glad when the 30 of us left and went to the church for the next part of our night. We had decorated the Relief Society room with birthday decorations and even brought the couches in so that Grandma and Grandpa would be comfortable. The program started off with Carolyn singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Aaron and Reese did "Chem 111" which involved using household chemicals to make experiments. Grandpa was a Chem major, so this went over well. Susan played Can You Feel the Love Tonight. Thomas played a song on the piano by Rachmaninov. Melanie sang Stormy Weather. The little cousins sang I am a Child of God. Mike and Timothy played the trumpet and the funnel to Popcorn Popping. Then we got to the even more fun part. We had Barbara juggle sugar packets from the restaurant. She did ok with the first one, but could use some juggling lessons. Dad played Home Home on the Range with the spoons. And Bob did the classic Heart where he takes his heart out and then swallows it again.
But the best part of the night was hearing each of the children talk about Grandpa and his wonderful life. What an amazing man he is. I love learning more and more about him all the time. It was so much fun to see all the family and just spend quality time together.