Memorial Day, 2017

Our tradition went down as planned: family bike ride to Elle's grave, fried chicken picnic, and shave ice at the bottom of the hill.

Then Getty called late in the afternoon from the treatment center way up north and said he finally got permission to come home. Could we pick him up? We hardly got to see Getty and jumped at the chance. Four hours later we biked back to the cemetery with him, and he told us of an awesome experience he had with Elle. And that from his experience, she's always with us... always. I know it's true. We were all in tears.

Elle's grave at Christmas

We joined about a thousand bikers (for real) at the Veteran's cemetery where Rob's mom is buried. Why didn't I take a pic of them?... duh Instead, what you see here is a very calm, sunny morning, just the two of us in the cemetery.... While in the real world, the bikes are rumbling about 100 feet away from us and line the entire road into and around the cemetery, people yelling to old friends over the engines... peaceful like that 😊 But the boys were entertained👍

We don't visit Rob's mom's grave often, but she was such a loss to our family. She was a paragon of a grandma to our kids and kept the extended family connected and feeling loved. 


She hosted family dinners every Sunday for whoever wanted to come over. 
 

She came to games and performances and would always entertain the little kids and take them for treats at half-time. She would laugh and tell us every little thing they did or said that was so cute or so funny. She got such a kick out of them.

She would go WAAAAY overboard for Christmas and birthday gifts and would personalize their birthday cakes. (See her wrist?👇 There are pins in there. You'd think that would slow her down. Nah, not Grandma....)

(MK, Getty, and Mia 😂 They're so little!!)

(Cam, Mia, and Aunt Cindy in Grandma's igloo of presents)

She would take the grandkids on field trips, out to eat, to the Dollar Store for shopping sprees, and hosted lots of sleepovers with cousins and campfires and roasted Starbursts and marshmallows.

 Wherever Grandma was, you'd find the kids

She was the Energizer bunny—always going and doing, cooking, cleaning, babysitting, shopping, gardening, hosting parties, magnifying her callings, plus working part-time at a senior center. 

Even on the Easter morning when Grandpa suffered a major heart attack and lay in a hospital bed, Grandma insisted on hosting dinner and the Easter egg hunt a few hours later as planned. 

Typical.

 (Trent! Getty and Cam)

(Here she is sewing a tree skirt and little tutu ornaments 
for Elle's tree at Festival of Trees)

Christmas dinner

I want to be her brand of Grandma!

Aunt Meme's family, Memorial Day, 2017

Newest nephew Remington

I'm so not done having babies!

 His big brother Brix. He's a dreamboat.

He kept leaning back in front of me, so I would catch him and break his fall to the floor 😂


I rarely visit my dad's grave, but I think about him every day. Next to Heavenly Father and the Savior, he's been my greatest help and support. His presence and influence have been so strong that I feel like I've morphed into a version of him. 

That's been my goal in life, so I'm a happy daughter.