Poppop's party... 88 years old!

So I’m a little late getting this up, but I feel like my week has just been so strange...

Last weekend some of my family threw my grandpa a birthday party. 88 years old is quite a milestone, especially with the year he’s had, broken hip and all.
Most of his kids and step kids (Grandma Betty’s been gone for about 7-8 years) were able to be in attendance, along with most of the grandkids. The Ohio folk were not able to come due to work obligations, totally understandable. (The only reason we were able to go was that my work schedule is only one day a week and Steve actually was able to get a day off - whohoo!)

The guest list/ celebration sheet - I don’t know if you can see it, but the Rankin family names and Dad’s name are one font size smaller then everyone else’s... haha Uncle Bart did them and said that he was cutting and pasting and didn’t see it till they were printed. Thanks Uncle Bart, we’ll forgive you this time :)

Grandpa (I call him that, though everyone knows him as and calls him ‘Poppop’) gave the girls (and the other baby there) some teddy bears. I was amazed and touched, I did not expect anything like that.

These are the girls with the bears and Poppop

At one point I am told that Poppop wants to get a picture of the girls and me with Dad and Poppop for a four generation photo. How amazing that we can do this picture! I remember taking one when I was younger with Nanny (my great-grandma), Poppop, Dad and me. I wish now I knew where that one was.

Here is the one we took with the girls though.

Poppop’s big gift (I want to get one for mom) was a digital picture frame with about 200 pictures loaded onto it of all his family... some recent picture and some not so recent. Uncle Bart did a fantastic job with collecting pictures and getting them onto the frame. And if we get and want to add other pictures to it, all we have to do is email then to Uncle Bart. How awesome!

This is the picture of Uncle Bart presenting the frame to Poppop. I hope that he likes it and gets a bit of use from it.

On our way to Grandpa’s we drove through the northern part of NJ and stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Hult’s house (actually it the apartment they moved to a couple of years ago, I hadn’t been there yet). We got to spend about an hour there before sleeping at Dad’s house (never do that, at least not that way, again) and heading down to Poppop’s the next morning. The girls were tired, but it was good that we went. Maybe we will get a chance to go back in February for Grandma’s birthday.

Here is the picture from that night. Top row Jon (Rach’s finacee), Steve, Dad, Aunt Marge, Uncle Bart. Bottom row Me holding Megan, Grandma, Rachel and Faith. Grandpa was the one taking pictures.

It was a good weekend, but it didn’t feel like an actual weekend because of all the traveling. I am glad we got to go. Grandpa is such a neat person and I fear that his time on earth is short. I count my blessings, though, that I am his granddaughter, I got to spend do much time with him when I was younger, and that he knows Steve and the girls. He actually called this week I was amazed! He asked if the girls like the bears and thanked us again for traveling to be there.