Happy Birthday Granddaddy, Family time, and a trip North

My mom's family got together during the Mother's Day weekend to celebrate my granddaddy's 90th birthday!  We had 26 of the 35 members of our family together!  The most that we've had all in one place in quite a while.  It was too bad that Josh couldn't be there or we would have had all of Granddaddy's daughters and grandchildren present.

The birthday boy ;)

Blowing out the candles

Almost the entire family

The Sisters

The original Galloway clan

My mom's youngest sister, Jeannie, has always been the fun aunt (not that my other aunts aren't fun, but since she didn't have any children of her own, we all kind of adopted her :)) and for some reason, all of the nieces have been called "Jeannie" while Jeannie gets called all of the names of her nieces.  So we decided that we needed to take a picture of "The Jeannies".

The Jeannies

The smallest of the next generation had fun playing together both during the party and then on Saturday night while the rest of us enjoyed the manager's reception (with free drinks) and dinner all together (we left the grandparents home so they could rest).  It was so neat to see the kids all play together and have fun. These pictures aren't the best, but it's the best you get when you have two two-year olds and one four year old running around :)

Jay and Lily posing themselves :)

Lily smiling, but already thinking
of where she's going next

Jay turned around just as a snapped
the picture

Just before we had dinner, Steven joined our cousin Richard at the bar and they were watching some racing on the T.V.  Well, Mr. Jay just loves racing and so he decided to join Daddy at the bar.  It was just too cute not to snap a few pictures of :)

Like Father, Like Son

We managed to get Jay's attention

After our weekend in Charlotte, Mom, Dad, and I went to Ohio to retrieve their Hi-Lo camper that was being repaired.  Since the repair shop was within two hours of Lake Erie, I convinced Dad to go there first (also, we weren't going to be able to get the camper until Monday, so what was the rush).  So we spent Mother's Day in the truck with a brief stop at Lake Erie.

Not the best picture, but it's a light
house in Lake Erie

A look of Cleveland across a bit of
Lake Erie

Happy Mother's Day at Lake Erie

a self portrait with a Lake Erie
background

Our trip was a total of five days (Friday - Tuesday) and we went through a total of nine states (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, then back through Georgia and Florida).  I was able to see the Ohio River for the first time and enjoyed the beautifulness of The Great Smoky Mountains!  It was a fun trip, but I was never so ready to be back in my apartment and out of a truck :)

The Great Ohio River
outside of Cincinnati

The Smoky Mountains - can't really
see it but there is smoke coming
off the mountain

We're talking about another trip to Charlotte for Fourth of July (since we didn't really get to spend much time with the grandparents), but first I have a trip to Tampa and Busch Gardens coming up next weekend.  Then in June I will be celebrating my parents' 40th Anniversary and the birth of my best friend, Christy's, baby girl!!!  So I'm sure that there will be more stories and photos to come!!