Lucky...No, Blessed

Ever since the boys quit soccer, our Saturdays have been blissfully open. This week was an exception. The boys left at 7:45 a.m. for a merit badge day. I joined them for a couple of leader classes from 10:00-12:00. Robbie had most of the merit badges they offered, so he came home with me after lunch, and Joey stayed until 4:00 and worked on rank advancement. Here they are in the fingerprinting class, which they both enjoyed. Their other favorite was the electronics badge.

Robbie and I hurried home, changed and cut brownies to take to Grandpa Backman's 90th birthday open house. We feel so lucky to have him in our lives.

I wish I'd thought to get a photo with all three Robert Backmans...

It was great to see Rob's brother Rich, from Atlanta. We missed Matt & his family, and of course Joe wasn't there.

Judy is the oldest of seven daughters. We love all of Rob's aunts.

Here's a shot of all the family there—two of the Champneys came from California and Texas, and the Prices came from California, Texas and Germany! It was so fun to see everyone.

These are the grandkids who made it:

And the great-grandkids—this should have been a video, not a picture. It was pretty comical.

We picked Joey up just in time for a photo before everyone went home.

We had dinner at El Farol's with the Marshes, and I didn't even have my phone camera with me for a photo. When we finally got home I collapsed finished my gospel doctrine lesson. It was a productive, fun, exhausting day. Not much time for St. Patrick's Day traditions, but the leprechauns did make an appearance the night before, leaving gold Rolos inside the kids' lockers. And as Ainsley pointed out, we didn't want to wear green anyway...that's Slytherin's color. :)