Happy Sad

We ended up taking a quick and unexpected trip to Washington over Thanksgiving to attend my Grandpa Gilbert's funeral. Traveling on snowy roads is never fun, but it was well worth it. I am just glad we decided to stay an extra day and come back Monday instead of Sunday. The rest of my Utah family had horrible driving experiences between snowy roads, backtracking, and having to take the LONG way around due to road closures. We, on the other hand, had decent and open roads.

I love getting together with family, and I can't help but wonder if this was the last time so many of us will be together in one place at the same time. With both grandma and grandpa gone now, and so many of us, it's impossible to make schedules work. It was fun seeing as many people there as I did. The funeral was pretty special, I loved hearing evidence of grandpa's love for his family and the gospel over and over. It is true. He loved his family and was a proud father of 10 kids. A family that has now grown to 46 grandchildren, 108 great-grandchildren, and 4 great-great-grandchildren. Pretty amazing posterity.

The 10 kids


Spouses included


Some of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren

Although it may not have been the funnest reason to get together, it was great to spend a few days with my family nonetheless. Daylen and Kate loving their time with their cousins.

Brooks and Austin got to know each other a little better. Rachel came back to Utah with us for a couple of days before flying back to Texas.

If you're going to lay on the floor while grandkids are around grandpa, you better expect to get jumped and crawled on.

Austin is going to be the leader of this little pack I think.

Since Kate's little brother doesn't have any hair to comb she had to take advantage of Benson's little bit.

Of course whenever we go to Washington we get to take some time to visit with Brad's grandma, our last living grandparent now between the 2 of us. The kids always have fun playing with her toy selection and entertaining us all.

I love this sweet picture I got as we were saying our goodbyes. I just wish we could visit more often!

Grandpa Gilbert

This picture is the last picture we will ever take with my Grandpa Gilbert. It was taken at his 92nd birthday party earlier this year. He was my last living grandparent and now he has passed on to join grandma and all his loved ones who have passed on before him. His passing is a mixture of sorrow and joy for me. I will miss him dearly, but I can't help but be happy for him and my grandma. It has been years since they have been able to interact with each other in a meaningful way, my grandma had Alzheimers for years. But now I can imagine them catching up and grandma introducing grandpa to all her new friends she's made these past 20 months. These thoughts make me happy. They have lived their mortals lives and are now on to bigger and better things.

We love you grandma!

Can I be done with funerals for awhile? I have been to 3 funerals within the last year all for dear family members and I'm ready for a break. My sweet Grandma Gilbert (mom's mom) passed away Sunday, March 15. We knew it was coming, she hadn't been doing very well, in fact, we held a family fast the first Sunday in March for this very purpose. As always, it is sad to say goodbye, but it is also such a blessing to know she is in a much better place and state of mind now. She leaves quite a legacy behind, 10 children, 46 grandchildren, 83 great-grandchildren, and 1 great- great- grandchild, and they just keep coming!

The oldest grandson from each family were the pall bearers.

Here is my family!

I think my sisters and I inherited our love of dance from grandma. She loved to talk about how every Friday night she would go dancing at the open air dances when she was growing up in the Uintah Basin. She would tell us about all her boyfriends, and how she used to date grandpa's cousin, however I just learned at her funeral that she was dating them at the SAME time! Luckily grandpa won out. It was always fun going to grandma's house cause that usually meant there would be cousins there to play with. Right outside their backyard was a huge park where we spent hours playing, I loved the family softball or kickball games. Grandma loved to play softball, she played in tournaments until she was 52! I only heard about her playing days, by the time I was old enough to join grandma was getting up there in years seeing as my mom is number 8 of the 10.
Toward the end as her alzheimers got worse every time she saw me she would comment on my red hair. She would say, "My mother had red hair, but it was a little darker than yours." Then she would see Rachel and say, "It was exactly like yours!" Out of all her very large posterity Rachel and I were the only lucky ones to inherit the red hair.
Thank you! Love you grandma!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas in Walla Walla with my family this year. I was not excited at all about the lengthy drive, but it was definitely worth it. The whole reason we even decided to go home for Christmas was because my good friend from home, Candice, got married on the 21st. We decided to go for her wedding and we might as well just stay for Christmas while we were there, so we did. She looked absolutely beautiful, it was so fun to be there and see so many friends and family.

While at home we discovered we have a little Beethoven in our family, Daylen found the piano and loved to play it! He did pretty well too, I mean he wasn't spouting off any concertos, but he didn't just bang the keys he actually played it nicely. It was so cute because he would play for a little bit then stop and throw his hands in the air and yell, "Yah!!"

When Brad's parents moved to Alaska, Karen let my mom have her old high chair she used for her kids and was then using for her grandkids. My mom wanted it to in turn use for her grandkids. So Daylen got to use the same high chair his daddy used when he was a baby!

The Sunday before Christmas we got to go to visit Grandma Murray in Waitsburg, Wa, just about half hour away from Walla Walla. We spent a few hours with her and Daylen had a fun time playing with Grandma's toys. She had just gotten a bat and ball set, and Daylen LOVES balls so he had a great time. Plus, Brad and I then knew he would like his Christmas present because that is exactly what we got him!

On Christmas Eve we took a drive to Othello, Wa to visit my grandparents. This is where my mom grew up and I'm related to more people than I know in that city. If the last name is Gilbert you can bet I'm related. It was good to see them and visit for awhile, it's so hard to see your grandparents get old. I'm not sure my grandma even knew exactly who we all were, but luckily grandpa is still doing great in the mind area at least, he knows us and appreciated the visit. I especially enjoy getting to see him. My Grandma Goodwin is also living in Othello now at an assisted living facility. She lived with my parents for the last year, but she has dementia pretty bad and needed more attention and care. They had a piano in the eating area so my sister, Lori, sang "O, Holy Night" for grandma, then we all stood around while my mom played and we sang Christmas Carols for grandma and whoever else cared to listen. It was fun to sing with my family again, it's great to have husbands now to sing the men's parts, before we were pretty much a female choir as my dad always jokes about what a great lip syncer he is.

When we got back home that night the kids got to open 1 present, pj's of course. We tried to take pictures of them by the tree and they were a bunch of monkeys, they all had to have a banana. Daylen really enjoyed opening presents Christmas morning, and he was good at ripping that paper away.

Daylen was so cute with baby Kayla, he loved holding her. If someone else was holding her he would go up and put his hands out to hold her. He would watch her and touch her little fingers, he would hold her for quite awhile. When he gave her back he would have a big smile on his face, it the cutest thing! I think he'll be a good big brother.