It’s a boy!

We drove up to Pagosa Springs the last weekend in February for a gender reveal party for our oldest granddaughter, Sierra and husband, Micheal. They had driven down from North Dakota – only our daughter, Jessica and Micheal’s mom had been told by Sierra’s doctor whether it was a boy or girl. I was sure it was a girl and had been pretty vocal about it.

You can see from the blue smoke I was very wrong – grandpas aren’t as smart as they think they are – lol. It was a great party. Jessica and Michael’s mom and Sierra worked really hard planning it all out, making food, and decorating. There were 25 or 30 at the party – family and a few friends. We all had a great time.

The baby boy, already named Maverick, is due in July. It will be our second great-grandchild. Our second oldest grandchild, Ashley gave us a little girl named Madison (Maddie) in October. Along with our eight grandchildren ages 4 to 21 we are very blessed.

There isn’t anything I enjoy more than spending time with family. We live a few hour’s drive away from everyone except Aaron and family in Vermont, but trips are made often. We get to see them grow and change – we know the difficulties they face – the failures and successes. We try to be good examples, especially spiritually but also culturally. They will all be their own person – I see my independent and stubborn streak at least a little bit in all of them. I have great hope for all of them and confidence to match. Each of our children have great hearts – our grandchildren seem to have chosen to follow that lead. These great-grandchildren will have a host of good examples in family to watch and learn from. We live in a time when many families seem to get torn apart – my prayers and efforts will always be to encourage our cleaving to each other. There is great strength to be found in family that share a common love for each other.