Monday, January 4, 2016

Christmas Break- Part 4

January 1-  This was supposed to be the final day of our trip to California. We extended the trip because of the funeral obviously. The airline charged us $200 per ticket to change! Can you believe that?! Supposedly they will refund us the money since there was a death in the family. I had to send in a copy of the death certificate so we are still waiting to hear about that.

At 1 p.m. Stacie, my mom, and I went to the funeral home to dress Grandma in her temple clothes. It was a very different experience to say the least. It didn't bother me to see her. I knew that her spirit was elsewhere and in a good place so I wasn't worried about her. I've seen bodies before in anatomy class so maybe that helped. We put her temple clothes on. The funeral director was able to give us some helpful pointers (he's LDS). Stacie and I were able to put on Grandma's makeup. We brought her own makeup from her house so we knew it would look good. Once we got her foundation on and gave her color she looked just like grandma. I also painted her nails. We figured she would like that. She had just gotten a pedicure that looked really good but no one would see that!

After that, we went over to the Vaughn's house to feed the horses. Their neighbor's have three horses that Volcom loves to feed and I thought my girls would like it too. They have three horses- one little pony, a medium size horse, and a very large horse! Just look at that guy! Colin looks short compared to the horse. Speaking of Colin, he held Owen most of the time we were there. Jill and Colin drove him over in their car too. Owen didn't even care his parents were there. He really liked Colin this trip!


Anna was afraid to feed the horse at first. They do have rather large teeth and mouths!

But eventually she fed the horse all by herself!

Volcom had no problems feeding the horses since he's done it many times. The kids especially liked feeding the pony since it was smaller.

I don't think Macy ever fed the horse straight from her hand. She mostly threw the carrot through the fence for the horse to eat from the ground.


Then we went back to Randy's parents house. They had a ton of clementines, lemons, and avocados to pick! I'm jealous of that California produce straight from the backyard!

Randy's grandpa used to farm on the land so he had an old tractor. Those things are always fun to play on!




After leaving the house we drove over to Grandpa Seymour's to spend more time with him. He wanted to see his great grandkids one more time before we left. I fed Owen in this high chair. He's the third generation to have used it. Grandpa said he bought it at a yard sale and fixed it up for his kids. It's in amazing condition! Owen looked happy to be in it!


I had another fun night spending it with grandpa, my siblings, my parents, and cousins. It made me realize we don't see each other often enough! I loved the feeling I had that we all were in the most important place that night. No one wanted to be anywhere else. We had fun looking through some of grandma's things and taking things we wanted. Macy came home with a bag full of stuff!

We took the kids home to bed and prepared for the funeral the next day.

January 2-  Grandma's funeral.  The family viewing started at 10 a.m. I had Macy and Anna with me since Ja was waiting in the car with napping Owen. Macy really wanted to see grandma in the casket so I took them both up there. Grandma had a fork in her hand and naturally Macy was curious about this. Grandma always said she wanted to be buried with  a fork in her hand. She said oftentimes people say, "Keep your fork! The best is yet to come!" So she wanted a fork knowing there are better things to come to her.

Uncle Steve made the programs and they turned out really nice.




The funeral service was a wonderful time celebrating Grandma. Dorothy had Owen in the back, Macy sat by Jill, and Anna was with me. All three of them were great! 

Aunt Kathy shared a story of Grandma and Kevin. Grandma asked Jill what she wanted for Christmas and she replied with a my size barbie doll. Kevin (who was a teenager) said he wanted a my size barbie doll too. Kevin opened his present at Christmas and it was a regular barbie doll and grandma put a post-it note on the box that read: Just add water.

My dad shared a funny story he still remembers about Grandma. He was a young boy sitting on the floor coloring with Grandma. They were watching TV and a no smoking commercial came on with the famous red circle with a line through it. Grandma then drew a red circle around half of the coloring page and drew a line through it. She said, "There, now you don't have to color half of the picture!" That's grandma's humor for you.

My Uncle Eric took some pictures of the graveside service. It was a beautiful service and the funeral director shared a story I liked a lot. It went something like this: There is an Indian tribe that "initiates" a boy into a man when the time comes by having him sit it blindfolded in one spot all night long. He can hear the wild animals around him, hear sticks cracking nearby, but he must remain blindfolded and sitting in one spot. When the sun rises the next day he removes the blindfold to see his father sitting right next to him. The father was with his son all night long for protection. The funeral director said this story relates to grandma because although we can't see her she is always with us, protecting us.

A few people stood up and said some remarks about Grandma. Macy kept telling me I should tell everyone about my memories of being at Grandma's house for Christmas. I had told Macy about them a few days earlier. She must have been feeling the Spirit but didn't want to talk in front of everyone so she made me do it :)






Me with my cousins, Erica, Bryce, Evan, Mackenna (evan's wife)








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