Zach turns 11!

For Zach's birthday, we were down at my moms to celebrate my grandma's, Ben's and Zach's birthdays. My uncle Dick and uncle Bruce came and we spent a nice little weekend with family.

We drove down on Friday, Saturday we went to lunch at a Chinese buffet that my grandma likes and that was close to her place. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out as a family. We went and visited my grandma the next day. I love the visits where she remembers who I am. Her mind is going foggy with long term memories (depending on the day), but her short term memory is pretty shot. It's interesting watching the circle of life and I'm very grateful that I've had my grandma in my life for all these years. I'm grateful that the kids will remember her and that Zach will have his own special memories because of his Pup Pup.

While we were there, Ryan showed me an old scrapbook of my dad's life. It was the first time I'd seen it and it was strange. It's strange to think our parents had "lives" without us in them, because all we know are lives with them. I looked at my dad as a boy and then young man and it didn't look like "my dad." I was trying to look past the age, at the eyes or smile, and it was just strange. I feel so blessed that enjoy blogging and putting our memories in the same place so that we can remember them for years to come. My kids will show their kids some day and they'll have those same feelings that I do when I look back at family history. It's pretty great that we are able to preserve our memories with pictures and videos.

Now a little bit about our baby boy, Zach, who turned 11 years old while we were there! It's hard to imagine that time has gone so quickly and that he's now just so big.

He loves (from him) : "Pizza, Rachet and Clank, Minecraft, all my friends, Terraria, my family, my stuff, where we live, my Legos and some of my toys, school, myself, cookies and that's all"

We love him because he's witty and silly, caring and sweet, creative, helpful, handsome, lively, sensitive, independent, responsible (as much as an 11 yr old can be) and he's just a good boy. We are very blessed to have him in our family. He brings a calm (when he's not arguing with Alissa or talking back) and helps me remember what's important when he so lovely asks "are we going to read tonight?" It's those reminders that he values and really enjoys those times with Alan and I. He loves his family and we love him!

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