I know everyone thinks their grandparents are the best, but they are all wrong. Mine is the best.

My papa is so sweet, funny, and generous. He has love for his family that has extended into tons of people. For me personally, there are a few things that I just REALLY love about him.

-His cologne
-His singing voice
-His love of Neccos
-His hugs, followed by back rubs
-His big belly
-His big, stumpy hands
-His mustache

He is seriously the cutest old man, with some of the best one liners. Some of my favorites are, “Ya dipstick”, “You got a hole in your chin?”, and “See you in the morning if the creek don’t rise”.

He laughs and jokes with all of us making for a good time when he is around.

I will always appreciate him introducing me to the toad in the hole. (DELICIOUS breakfast food by the way)

My whole family from out of town (myself included) went to visit Sterling, Illinois to celebrate. This trip was great because it was the first time ALL of us have been together in over 10 years. Since then, great grand kids have been born, and ex husbands have been made. We needed a new family photo, and I was going to get it, gosh darn-it! It didn’t matter to me how annoyed some of my family was with me, they could get over it! 🙂 And I got it…Almost. Be sure to check out the bloopers at the end to see who ruined it-but hey! WE ALL GOT A PICTURE TOGETHER!!

Additionally, if your interested to see how this trip went with Hazel, you need to check out my “Trips” highlights on my Instagram. Toward the end you can see the huge bite she gave me that provided me with a humungous bruise on my arm that lasted over a week!

Papa, happy 80th birthday! You are so loved by so many, including the close to 50 of your family members who came to celebrate you for this milestone birthday!

We started out the weekend by getting ALL the family together at the church to eat spaghetti pizza from Angelos. It sounds so gross and so messy, but it is ALWAYS one of my favorite and most cherished things to do when we are in town, which isn’t very often now that we are grown. It was so fun to see old family members that we haven’t seen in years-some I’ve never even met at all, EVER!

As you can see, Hazel approved of the spaghetti pizza.

What happens when you see your aunt for the first time in a while.

Papa’s favorite dessert for cake!

Everyone who showed up from the family for pizza except for me, who was taking the picture!

Papa naturally making his sisters laugh, even still after 80 years. I LOVE this picture! Watching these three siblings interact all weekend was literally my favorite thing! It was so nice to see that you can still have sibling love and rivalry even after years and years.

The next day we had Papa’s surprise birthday party!

My mom and her siblings worked so hard to coordinate this party and get decorations together! They did a great job!

SURPRISE!!

We also had some photo booth fun!

Even my Papa’s sisters!

I think he was pretty happy about his surprise

After the party I made my whole family go back and take photos.

Here is the WHOLE family. Can you spot who messed it up?

LEAH!! Don’t worry, she also turned 11 of her family photos with her parents and sister into bloopers as well. Scroll to the end to see some of the best!

Here’s all the grandkids. The grandparents were sick of me taking pictures at this point and declined a picture with the great grand kids. Oh well, that just means they have to stay alive another 10 years for this opportunity, right?!

The Original Battles Family

The Lintons

The Gerbers

The Battles

The Blues

The Mannings

The Villarreals

And now….The Bloopers!

The Blues gave Leah a run for her money, because someone ALWAYS had their eyes closed in every shot…or my husband, Zach, was photobombing.

But no-one can overthrow the blooper queen. I present to you only a snippet of the bloopers Leah caused. 🙂

I know years from now I will use these for her senior Sunday at church.

Even though it was hectic traveling with a little one, it was so worth it. I was so honored to help preserve some of these memories for my family. It was so special having everyone together and I am so glad that we will have these photos to look back on years and years from now. I hope my kids, and their kids, and their kids will be able to look and see just how much of an impact this sweet man had on everyone and how many people came to be because of him, including themselves!