June 27- July 1, 2024
Grandpa Gwilliam's 90th Birthday Bash
Almost the entire Gwilliam family was able to be present at Grandpa Jerry A. Gwilliam's 90th birthday celebration, and it was a wonderful weekend. I loved watching all of the interactions between cousins, siblings, aunts and uncles, grandparents and just the mixing of our big family. Because of Jerry and Joyce, whenever we have been all together over the years, the phrase "joy in your posterity" always comes to mind. They always seem the happiest and most content when surrounded by their ever growing family.
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| Uncle Eric and Tyler arm wrestling with Sam, Andrew and Ruby in the background. |
We all enjoyed seeing the book Keith made to propose to Kristen and hearing more of their engagement story. Kristen had to reshare several times, and the brothers loved ribbing Keith a bit for his romantic ways. They are getting married in September.
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| Sam, Park, Kristen, Aub, Ruby and Sarah |
Several of us stayed at a hotel not far from Joyce and Jerry's house. We would eat breakfast and then head over. We all kind of staggered our arrivals and departures depending on what our schedules would allow. We came in late Thursday night and left Monday afternoon. The birthday celebration was scheduled for Saturday night.
The family room is open to the kitchen and the dining room and is always a fun place to gather. There were often people in the office, formal living room and backyard as well.
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| Kristen, Keith, Aubrey, Bri, Tanner & Parker (Tanner was glad he came but was missing his family!) |
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| Grandpa, McKayla (the oldest grandchild), Bruce, Brian & Keith |
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Jerry, Aubrey, Brinley & Derek
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I was hoping to get to know Derek a lot better on this trip, but he had lots of family to meet and become acquainted with so I mostly just enjoyed watching (from afar) these two interact with others.
The groups never stayed the same for long, and it was a lot of fun to have plenty of time to catch up, laugh and make new memories.
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| Uncle Keith putting together Grandpa's gift with the help of Tyler and Addison |
On Saturday night we had the main event and celebrated Grandpa's birthday with a nice dinner, family pictures and games.
Brian's second to youngest brother Eric w/ his daughter and two of his sons.
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| Eric, Macy, Henry, Jack & Aub |
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| Ruby, Bruce, Caroline, & Jeff |
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| Griffin, Karol, Sarah, Kyle, Megan w/ Emma, Kris w/ Holly, & Denise |
Scott & family live in Sonora, Ca which is about two hours from Lafayette. They have their hands full with three very busy two and half year olds and a five year old.
Karol had been working with both Joyce and Jerry over the past couple of years (or more?) to compile memories from their lives to make into individual books, and she had the hard copies at the reunion. It was so much fun to read about their lives and see the books getting passed around this weekend. Karol also was the backbone in planning the celebration and organizing all the events, meals etc. This was a well deserved Sunday afternoon catnap!
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| Mike & Karol Fontaine |
Sam is hilarious. He is pretty straight faced and then randomly does the craziest things. When he was probably around thirteen, for our family talent show, he played a song on his recorder through his nose. It was impressive. This time, right before cake, he had an announcement. Uncle Keith has done some modeling over the years, and Sam presented him with a church ad he was in. Sam saw it hanging up on a friend's church bulletin board and confiscated it. Everyone was cracking up, and Keith took it like a champ.
Probably one of my favorite parts of the whole weekend was this game we played at the b-day celebration: "Who Knows Grandpa Better?" Kris came up enough questions for everyone to participate, and she even brought buzzers. She had the two oldest grandkids (Andrew and McKayla) be the captains and they picked the teams. Let the games begin!
Some of the questions were things like, "What was Grandpa's favorite toy from childhood?" or "What is Grandpa's favorite drink?" or "What was Grandpa and Grandma's first date."
It was fun to hear Grandpa's answers, and it was also funny because you could tell he was trying to be generous and diplomatic with some of our guesses. There was lots of friendly competition between the two teams: laughing and teasing and cheering. It was a great way to celebrate Jerry, and I want to keep this idea in my back pocket for upcoming birthdays on the Vore side.
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| McKayla, Grandpa, Kris & Andrew |
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| Jeff & Sarah facing off |
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Jerry, Me, Brian and Joyce
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| Parker & Grandpa |
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Brinley & Grandma
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The Gwilliam Fam!
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Back row lft-rt: Kristen (Keith's fiancé,) Conner, McKayla, Macy, Jack, Kris, Hendry, Parker, Aubrey, Me (Erin), Tanner, Brinley, Derek, Mike, Kaitlyn holding Holland, Levi, Logan, Sam, Caroline, Ruby, Andrew, Sarah, Denise, Griffin, Megan holding Emma, Sarah, Kyle and Carrie Front row lft-rt: Keith, Eric, Brian, Karol holding Riley, Grandma (Joyce), Grandpa (Jerry), Jeff, Bruce holding Grace, Scott holding Braxton and Caleb, Tyler, & Addison
The grandkids/spouses and great grands not able to come: Blake (in a wedding), Emily & Jackson, Lindsey (FSY counselor), Erin & Kaide (not wanting to fly across country until the wedding in Aug), Max (mission in D.C.).
We definitely missed Erin & Kaide, but all of the cousins with toddlers totally related to Tanner and Erin's reluctance to fly w/ a toddler.
I am so proud to be a Gwilliam. I love Jerry and Joyce, their amazing son, Brian, and all of these amazing relatives. We have a wonderful family. |
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| Parker (21), Aubrey (17), Tanner (19), Me/Erin (51), Brian (55), Brinley (23), Derek (24), Grandma (83) and Grandpa (90) |
