Today is my Uncle Larry’s (AKA “Unc” and “Grunc”to the kids) 70th Birthday!

This weekend Unc and his darling lady friend, Jill, are coming to visit and celebrate his BIG day.

My uncle is an a-maz-ing artist. He had a very successful career based out of San Francisco and a few years ago he sold his cute litte A-frame house in Woodside and “retired” in Wawona, Yosemite.

Even though he lived in the Bay Area, Unc was always around for the big celebrations ~ Thanksgiving, Christmas, graduations, weddings, etc. There are even rumors that he cut his Europe trip short in October of 1970 so that he could be there for my birth! He has always made an effort to be at the BIG things in my/our life. He and Jill absolutely love Elliott and Holden and, because of that, I think we get to see them more often now and I LOVE THAT!

Here are some pieces that Unc did several years ago. Super duper talent going on here.

The first two were done for The Monterey Bay Aquarium, the third was a greeting card which he used my grandfather as a model and the final one is a Christmas card that his representative had all her artists do one year (the model in this pic is his sweet girl, Elsie. We miss you!):

Here is a picture of Grunc meeting Elliott for the first time in August ’05:

And here are a couple from our 4th of July ’09 trip to Wawona:

I know that E & H are already appreciating their Grunc’s humor as he has given them books entitled: “Walter the Farting Dog”, “That’s Disgusting!” and “Who Pooped in the Park?” Yes, that’s Grunc for you!

Unc, I love you and I love your talent, witt, sarcasm, mountain man-ness, gourmet cooking abilities, board game playing strategies (AKA cheating) and just the fact that you are my one and only uncle! I will never forget our times together from the time I was a little girl to now. I look forward to drinking wine and reminiscing with you this weekend.

Happy 70th Birthday, Grunc! We love you!