I have been so blessed to be able to know all of my grandparents and many of my great grandparents as well.  Brett was only able to know one of his grandpa's, but he was able to know him well, since he lived with Brett and his family for several years.

I have enjoyed getting to share the relationships of my grandparents, with Brett.  We have been fortunate enough to live in relatively close proximity to them for quite a while.  

We got to spend time and get together with my Great Grandpa Breinholt, in particular, several times over the years of our dating and being married.

My Great Grandpa Breinholt was such a sweet man.  Until his health started rapidly declining, he always knew all of his grandchildren's names (which was quite a feat, considering he had 5 children, 35 grandchildren, 149 great grandchildren, and 39 great-great grandchildren), and knew enough about what was going on in their lives to ask them questions and tell stories.

I loved hearing the simple stories about his life.  Like, how he went through a phase of juicing so many carrots and drinking the juice that he turned orange.  Or when he spent a majority of a paycheck on a box of fresh peaches for his family, and then he took a spill on his bicycle and they fell all out and bruised--he went home upset and crying with peach juice dripping off of him and his wife, my great grandma, just laughed, picturing him toppling over and the peaches flying.

And another great thing about my Grandpa Breinholt, was his great love for In-n-Out Burger.  For many, many years, he went there every single day (except for Sunday) and always ordered the exact same thing: a hamburger with extra onion, extra tomato, and a milk.  The employees loved him and knew him.  One year for Christmas, they gave him In-n-Out memorabilia signed by all of them.

He passed away recently, and while I am sad I won't get to see him for a while, I am happy he is reunited with my grandma, along with other family members who have passed away.  Some who include, his son and daughter-in-law, and two of his great grandsons.

I am grateful that we were able to attend his services and since we have such a big, giant, loud, and sometimes crazy, family--it also served as a really great family reunion.

We ended the night off appropriately, and grabbed dinner at In-n-Out after his services.  It was a really happy dinner, and a pretty meaningful one too.