Grandma Wanda’s funeral

Grandma Wanda and her seven surviving children.

I’m glad I snapped this picture of the girls with two of their aunts.

The funeral was wonderful!  Each of the seven kids spoke and Chris sang Bring Him Home.  Thankfully they had a nursery for the kids, so I was able to attend the funeral too!

All of the cousins who were there.

Cousins with spouses and children.

This was supposed to be of just Barbara and DeWin, but I like that Hattie is in it too!

All of our family was there, except for Nate’s family—they were on vacation somewhere.

That night we stayed in Layton with Brian’s aunt and uncle, Linda and Nigel.  The next morning we drove to Idaho Falls for the burial:

Grandma Wanda was buried next to her husband, who died in March of 1982, and her daughter, Harriet Harris, who our little Harriet was named after.  Harriet died in an accident when she was only 14 years old.

The graveside service was very nice, though most of it was spent running after Georgia.

Brian was a pallbearer—along with his other guy cousins who were there.

DeWin gave a nice talk.

Laying roses on Grandma’s casket.

DeWin with his living siblings (all but Harriet)—Linda, Neal, Vicki, Todd, Jill, Kim, and DeWin

Our little family.

After the burial, we went to a nearby church building for a luncheon that Kim and Janae put together.  Then we started our road trip back home, stopping in Boise.  The girls were obviously exhausted!

Utah trip

Brian’s Grandma, Wanda Harris, died on October 12th, so on the 18th we headed to Utah to be there for the funeral. 

Do you see the that cute smile behind her pacifier?  She’s saying “cheese”.  That was the miracle that happened on this road trip.  Georgia was SO much happier than she had been on any road trip we had this summer. 

I love that my babies know and love my Grandma Jody.  She is wonderful!

We stayed at my grandparents house for the first couple of days of our trip.  They are the best hosts!  We had such nice visits with so many of my favorite people, but I didn’t take very many pictures.  We saw Diane and Ray and Audrey for a little bit when we first drove into UT, Ann and Charles stopped by one evening when we were at Grandmas’ house, Laura and her little kids came by one morning, and we spent time with Amy and her family.  We also spent one of our days at Annie’s house!

The girls had a great time playing together!  We spent most of the day just chatting and playing at Annie’s house, but we also went to a fun barn nearby and got yummy treats.

Samuel was there too!

Annie took about 30 pictures to try to get one good one, but this is the best.  It just gets worse after the first one.

Ha!  Like this one.  The funny thing is that neither of us remember Jody having a meltdown.

Elna and Marian sure nailed it though!  And for some reason I just love the picture of Georgia above with her eyes closed.  She’s a sweet kid!

After our few days in the Orem area we headed north for the funeral.

Pumpkin carving

Elna is the most determined and independent kid I know.  She decided to do her pumpkin entirely by herself—and she did!  She did so well!

Hattie needed a little more help, but she did really well too!

I love her focused faces above!

The finished products!

Pumpkin patch

We made our way out to the pumpkin patch on a rainy, soggy day and it was such a fun family activity.  The girls all loved it!

Cute girl #1

Cute girl #2

Cute girl #3

Let’s do this!

This girl always wants to help and do things on her own.  So independent and so helpful!

But it was actually pretty tricky and topsy turvy to do all by herself, so I helped her a little.

Family picture!

Girls trip

One of the first weekends in October, I joined some of my favorite girls for a getaway to Sunriver.  It was so relaxing and just what we all needed!

Katie, Jillian, and I were the first to head up—we left Friday morning.  We stopped at this cool bridge that looked over a very deep canyon.  A little unnerving to be so high up.  As we were leaving someone had arrived to go bungee jumping off of it.  Eek!

After the bridge stop, we eventually made it to Bend, where we had lunch and did some fun shopping together.  Then we stopped at this beautiful waterfall.

The rest of the girls arrived in two shifts that evening and the party began!  We stayed up way too late that night—like past 3 a.m.  Not smart, but very fun!

Connie got this funny picture of us all facetiming our families.  Ha!  I’m pretty sure someone else was facetiming too—just in another room.

These girls are my favorite!  We always have the best time!

Back row- Connie, me, Jenny, Jillian     Front row- Ericka, Stephenie, Katie, and Brandi

We got home Sunday evening.  I look forward to this trip so much every year.  I feel so blessed to have such good friends!  And I’m so grateful for Brian, who supported me going and for taking care of the girls while I was gone!