Grandpa's 80th Birthday

This past weekend I flew to Northern California to celebrate my grandpa's 80th birthday. I originally wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it since the party fell on the weekend between my trip to Europe and camp. Luckily I pulled the trigger and redeemed some of my Southwest points long before I left for Europe so I didn't even have time to second guess the idea after that.

Cousins

I almost forgot about the trip in the midst of everything else going on this summer, but when the night before arrived and I threw some outfits into a duffel bag I finally got excited about going. On Friday night I was able to stop by an Awana event and see all of my Awana families for the first time in over a month before I headed straight to the airport, so the weekend started out well before I even got to Cali.

The last couple of weeks have been busy and tiring, so the unexpected blessing of my trip to Cali being refreshing was amazing. I got to hang out on my aunt and uncle's farm, enjoyed spending time with my extended relatives, and everything went off without a hitch and without any stress.

Grandpa turned 80 on the actual day of the party, so that worked out perfectly. I'm incredibly blessed to have a grandpa who not only loves me, but loves the Lord and it's evident in his life. As people shared stories about him at the party it was incredibly evident that he's lived his life with the ultimate goal of serving God. Not everyone can say that they've had a grandpa like that, and I'm thankful that I have. I know of a few people who have lost their grandfathers recently, so it's been a good reminder to appreciate the time that I do have with mine.

And to make the whole weekend even better, my return flight worked out so that I got into the airport at pretty much the exact same time the Czech mission team got back, so I got to greet them as they re-entered the country! It was a nice end to a great weekend.


This will be my last blog post before I head to camp, so it will be awhile before I get around to posting some of the travel blogs that I have, but they are coming!