Enduring Well

My grandma should have passed away four years ago.  We all rushed out to one last family reunion to be with her.  Instead, she surprised everyone and kept living life.  I think she knew how much my grandpa, who is suffering from dementia, needed her and so she chose to stay with him that much longer.  I'm so glad we got those few extra years with her.  My grandma was an inspiring lady and I really enjoyed the life sketch my cousin did of her and the tributes made by each of her kids.  I have been thinking more about family history lately and realizing that I don't want my grandparents to be forgotten.  There is so much my kids can learn from their lives.

This is my grandpa saying goodbye with my parents behind him.  My grandpa kissed her goodbye and told her she had been a good wife.  At another time, he kissed her then announced she kissed him back! 

As a child I remember grandma's house as a place where we played games and where there was always candy, ice cream, or something yummy.  She liked to make sure we were all well fed and loved family gatherings.  One of the funnest memories is playing card games with numbers crossed out and a new ones written in.  I think this carried over from the depression years.  She didn't throw away a card deck when it was missing cards.  Instead, she combined multiple decks by crossing out numbers and making a new deck.

As I got older, I appreciated my grandma more as someone who really cared about me.  When we went to the temple with Dallin for the ceremony to make him a part of our forever family (when he was 6 months old), my grandma flew out to join us.  She was very sick on the trip, but I'm so glad my grandparents were there.  That trip ended up being her last trip to visit us.  I was glad she was able to join us on that special celebration because she was part of our journey to get Dallin in terms of the support she gave us.  During my infertility years, she was always praying for me and asking how things were going.  She would call up temples and put my name on the temple prayer roll for extra prayers!  During our last family reunion she asked all my relatives to help find us a baby and pray for us.  Dallin joined our family six months later.

I hope I can follow my grandma's example and live my life as well as she did.

My grandpa with his kids and their spouses

The pallbearers- all the grandsons except for my brother Jared who lives out of the country

My family who attended the funeral.  This was my first time away from my boys and I got a little emotional at times.  I'm really glad I wasn't chasing after them either though and got to enjoy time catching up with family!

It was great spending time with my little sister Lindsey and having my mom's attention all to ourselves (meaning the grandkids weren't stealing her away.)  It is nice to have grown-up conversations.

My beautiful sisters

Family was very important to my grandma.  She loved having everyone around.  She would have loved the funeral with all of us gathering from across the country to celebrate her life and after the funeral, to talk and play games.

I had to add this poorly taken picture to show how fun and crazy my family is.  I happen to chuck one snowball at my dad as we were walking to the car, (I couldn't resist because although I'm glad I live in a place where it doesn't snow, it sure is fun to play in!) and two of my aunts inside immediately come running out to get in on the action.  They attacked my dad and anyone else in the way yelling something about getting even from all the snowballs with rocks in them that apparently my dad threw at them when he was little. My dad says he is innocent...

I have to give a shout out to Zane who took on the boys by himself for the weekend.  I left very early Friday morning (we were up at 3:30 a.m.!) and I came home late Sunday night.  The boys had a blast with dad doing all kinds of fun activities.  When I got home Zane made the best comment by saying he doesn't know how I get anything done during the day.  I love being appreciated!  The boys kept him busy!  They were well cared for and the house looked great.  Thanks Zane!