Grandpa Gordy's Grave ... Over the Years

It was just over 26 years ago when Grayson's dad passed away after battling pancreatic cancer. There are quite a few family photos gathered at the grave over the years. It's often in April that the Blackham Bunch goes out, as April 23 is the day Gordon left this earth. Sometimes we get together around Memorial Day in May. As we gathered at the grave this past Monday, Maga wondered how many pictures we had from the past years. I've posted several here on the blog ... but thought I'd do my best to compile them in a collection. 

2018 is posted at the top. Missing some family members as is generally the case. Landon and Keaton were working. Olivia too. Courtney and Addie were in New York. It was a nice day, but still quite cool. We hit Crown Burger afterward, which is also a bit of a tradition.

Here's the rest of the photos I could find. Some years, I know we went and there are the family photos at the duck pond from MY phone, but the picture at the cemetery would have been taken with Grayson's or Maga's phone/camera, and I wasn't able to locate them. Going back further, pictures were taken with film cameras and then scanned to digital. The olden days!

2017

Only Gray and Keaton represented our immediate family this year. Landon and Cooper were off to a Jazz playoff game. Callahan was working and Colton was under the weather, so I stayed home with him. 

2016

We didn't stay very long this year ... it was cold and rainy!

Two shots from 2015

 ... the selfie with only partial Gray

... and one using the timer.


Maga and Ana made another trip that year (2015) ...

Not sure where the 2014 photo is.

2013

 2012

2011

More pictures from 2011 in the long grass here. 

2010

2006

More pictures here.

2004

2002

 

2001

2000

1999

Fun with Friends and Family

If you search this blog for the DiFran family ... you will find a plethora of posts. Years ago, we just clicked. Of the five Blackham boys, four line up exactly with DiFrancesco kids. Our oldest boys, Landon and Chance are the same age, although those two were never quite as involved in the gatherings. My Keaton and Kiana's Tony were the same grade (although in age, Keaton is almost a year older), Marc and Cooper have been in the same classes at school, and Colton and Mara match up as the youngest for both of us. Callahan is the only odd man out. 

Several years ago, the DiFrancesco's moved to California. We've kept in touch on social media, and they've made trips back. We love to see them whenever they can squeeze us into their schedule as they visit. This year, they were here for Spring Break, and it lined up with our Spring Break, so perfect timing. We got to spend several hours on a Thursday just hanging out, visiting and eating.

Just in case the image doesn't work ... the link is HERE.

Fun with friends (and flowers). The DiFran family was in town from California and found a little time to come say hi ... and brought a bouquet of sunshine too ☀️

A post shared by JenB (@jenblackham) on Apr 5, 2018 at 4:45pm PDT

They kids played several games of Spikeball.

The boys gathered around the video games.

We introduced everyone to the ducks.

Then that weekend, Jami and the girls flew in from Seattle to spend a few days (Grayson had found a great deal on airfare, and he and four of the boys are heading out to Seattle next weekend. Jami just figured she'd take advantage of the deals too).  Sunday morning brunch, we had all the grandkids together.

Friends and family made Spring Break 2017 a little more memorable!

Easter 2018

Easter ... it's that time of year when other families hard boil eggs and color them. Occasionally that happens in the Blackham home, but EVERY Easter, we separate the egg whites, beat them into a meringue and add sugar, salt and cream of tarter to make "nests" ... these crumbly, flaky, melt in your mouth bites are OUR tradition. Every since elementary school for me. 2018 was the year of the nests. I made so many batches, and ate more than my fair share.

Easter morning was underwhelming again. In years past, there were times that Easter almost rivaled Christmas with the number of goodies and gifts brought by "the bunny" instead of Santa.  Last year, this year? Not so much. Buckets weren't even laid out and filled until the morning this year. Not much in them, but the kids didn't complain. They even posed for pictures, although I didn't get the boys all together. 

In the afternoon, we headed over to Maga's house. It conference Sunday, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Warm and sunny. Perfect!

 I'd made roll dough, turning it into orange rolls and traditional dinner rolls (forgot to grab a picture of them). I also made Brazillian cheese rolls, as they are easy and a family favorite on both sides. 

We had quite the smorgasbord laid out. Grayson had smoked brisket and made mashed potatoes. Maga had her mac&cheese and ham, Clayton prepped mussels. 

Then there was the "peeps" cake ...

Keaton had to work and was missed (Sam's first words as we entered were "where's Keaton?") but we did get both the big boys and their girlfriends. Should have grabbed a big group photo!

Landon joked he was going to hit the stores the day after Easter to stock up on clearance candy. He didn't ... but I did. I mean, I was going to the store anyway, not making a special trip just for that! I must admit, most of the candy this year, was picked up last year. My Monday stop at Smiths I grabbed a few bags of the Reeses eggs (favorites for me and the three older boys) and some Robin Eggs (I love them), but that's pretty much all they had there. A few days later, at Walmart, I was surprised there was still quite a stock of clearance candy. More Reeses eggs (as they were less $$ than Smiths had been), some odds and ends (jelly beans, smarties, KitKat and Twix, Cadbury Eggs, PB M&Ms Eggs ... only found one package of those or I would have grabbed more). I had grabbed a couple of the FavorREDS jelly beans as I saw them mixed in with the others, as the reds ARE our favorites (and then I still pick out the dark cherry reds) ... but then I found a bin full of just that flavor. I grabbed quite a few.

What are YOUR favorite Easter eats and treats?