80 reasons we love Grandma Allen

My Grandma Allen, Orel Kay Lee Allen, turned 80 today.

She is awesome!

We had a surprise birthday party for her. Well, kind of a surprise... Grandpa had to get her there, with buckets of KFC chicken. I'm sure she figured it out. She's a smart lady.

I'm such a slacker and bum when it comes to birthday presents. I used to be a lot better at planning ahead, but not this time. Although in my defense, I had told everyone I was planning to make a Texas cake for her loooong before the party was planned. It's tradition. My Grandma loves Texas cake and ever since I can remember, she's always asked me which part of the cake has the most frosting. She's even been known to drink the leftover frosting on occasion.

So instead of a present {well, besides the cake}, I picked up some poster board, frantically emailed all of my cousins and family who weren't going to make it, and collected 80 things we all love about Grandma. I made my cousin, Nichelle, write the Happy Birthday part on the posters. She's artsy and crafty and ubber talented with stuff like this.

Here's the final list. Although I did have more than 80 things I'd collected from everyone. It was fun to read how many of us had the same memories with Grandma or the same traits we loved the most. I personally like the #1 reason the best - anyone named Kay must be awesome {I wrote that one!}. This obviously, also makes me her favorite. 

The fam-damily.

{Natalee and Blakely}

{The newlyweds... Nichelle and Eric}

 {The cake-ivores}

{Blakely and my Aunt Cara}

{Grandma with the only Tullis family around, Tim and Megan, while the rest of their family gallivants around Europe for the year}

{My Uncle Weston, Nicole and her squeeze... can't remember his name, but I like him}

I think every picture of my brother, Kurtis, is like this. People are going to think he has issues. 

But Anberlin is adorable as always!

The boys quickly lost interest in talking and started a rousing game of keep-away from Uncle Kurtis. 

{Pearl with her crazy flowers}

My parents got my Grandma a picture of her childhood home in Panaca. It was framed really nice and she was just tickled with it. Funny side story. For her birthday, my Grandpa told her that he would take her anywhere, ANYWHERE in the entire world that she wanted. You know where she picked? Panaca, Nevada. Podunk, nothing to do, hot as Hades, town Panaca. So funny!

And Jeff got her a box of sparklers. She giggled. {Read about the inside joke here}

It was a great evening, perfect weather in beautiful Cache Valley to celebrate the life of one amazing, fantastically funny, sassy, smart, kind, spiritual lady. I love you Grandma!

Piggy toes

Found this picture on my phone. An apparent mishap playing games.

 

I hope I always remember how cute little toesies are. 

Shark Bait Ooo Ha Ha

I decided to get Pearl a pet Betta fish for her birthday. Because we need another stinky animal to feed and worry about.

I thought it would be educational and teach her some responsibility. Little did I know, Jeff would soon claim Pearl's fish as his favorite pet. Why? Because he doesn't have to clean up poop, it doesn't make any noise, and no wet dog smell. And wouldn't you know it but Jeff has trained that dumb fish to swim right up to him in the same corner to eat. One pellet at a time as I've been told numerous times when caught feeding him wrong.

Meet Shark Bait, middle name Ooo Ha Ha.

I still think we should have called him Jaws in honor of "my" Betta in college. I say "my" loosely because Jaws was technically my grandparents' fish. When they left on their mission to Nauvoo and I moved into their house for 18 months, I inherited him. He was in this vase with a plant in it so it got really gross, really fast. My grandpa made me swear I'd keep that dumb fish alive until they got home. And when I'm given a challenge, I usually live up to it. That poor fish barely hung on until they got home. It probably didn't help that I avoided cleaning his tank or that he narrowly missed a horrible death down the sink's disposal {I made Jeff grab him because his flopping around always crept me out}. But I kept him alive. And the day my Grandpa came home and I proudly showed him I'd kept Jaws alive, he laughed and said, "Girl, I wanted you to kill him! I hate that fish!"

Maybe Shark Bait is a better name after all.

True love

True love is spending an hour driving from Smith's to Walmart to Target back to Target and finally Chevron in search of Jeff's favorite lip balm. And then buying all but one on the shelf... I figured another desperate soul might come in after me. Admittedly, I did take his last one a few weeks ago but still, I love that man!

Swimming lessons

I sure hope this little monster learns to float on his back for 10 seconds by himself soon or we'll be stuck in the red swim class forever!