Utah

Last Thursday my parents and I, my brother Curt, sister-in-law Mandy and their kiddos Andrew and Aubrey flew out to Salt Lake City, Utah for my grandma Beth's funeral. James was supposed to go, but got pretty sick right before we left. Additionally, we were having a tough time finding someone to watch Summit and Jax while we were gone so someone had to stay home with the dogs for the weekend. It was sad not having him there, especially during the funeral, but I was surrounded by lots of family members which made it all a little easier. By the time we got home on Sunday night though, I sure couldn't wait to see him!

Grandma Beth

We stayed with my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Loron who live in North Ogden, about an hour from Salt Lake City. On Thursday night we had a big family dinner at their house. Some of my other aunts, uncles and cousins who had made it into town came over to eat and catch up. My mom was one of seven children and I am one of 82 grandchildren and great-grandchildren (EIGHTY-TWO!). That's a lot of family, some of which I never even met until last weekend.

Andrew trying on Uncle Loron's Converse

On Friday, Curt, Mandy, Andrew, Aubrey and I drove up to Salt Lake to visit my friend Kate who moved to SLC last spring with her husband Brett. Kate showed me her house and then we all piled into the Suburban and drove up to Park City, Utah, the venue for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. We walked around Park City and ate lunch at the Wasatch Brewery. Then we headed over to Olympic Park to check out the Olympic museum, ski jump and bobsled run. There were all these little kids learning to ski jump, they simply had no fear. It was really fun to watch them. I think Andrew even wanted to get into the action (some of them weren't much older than him).

Utah has the best snow on Earth! ~ Kate and I in Park City

Olympic Park

Saturday was a tough day. We woke up and headed over to a funeral home in Ogden where grandma's wake and memorial service were held. Grandma had an open casket. I wasn't sure how she'd look because she had been quite ill towards the end of her life, but she honestly looked really peaceful. She was dressed in her Temple clothes (grandma Beth was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and when it was time to close the casket my mom and her sisters gathered around her and pulled a veil over her face. In the Mormon faith this ritual is performed when a women dies. It is believed that the woman's true love will then remove the veil in the afterlife (I think I got that right). It was a special moment watching all the sisters say goodbye to their mom.

The memorial service was special too. My cousin Amanda put together a slide show of photos from grandma's life and of all of her children, grand children and great-grandchildren. It was really wonderful and brought back so many memories. The service was perfect. It included music played by my cousins (songs requested by grandma Beth herself), a life sketch read by my aunt Betsy, a eulogy by my aunt Cathy, a tribute written by my uncle Richard and memories from each grandchild read by my cousin LeeAnn. My favorite memory of grandma Beth was her "teeth on demand" trick ~ when any of us were feeling down, grandma used to cheer us up by popping out her false teeth and smile at us with her big gummy, goofy grin. It worked every time.

Some of the great-grandchildren singing for grandma

After the service we piled into the cars and drove up to Lewiston, Utah, just a mile south of the Idaho border. We laid grandma to rest in the most peaceful cemetary I have ever seen. It is surrounded by picturesque mountains and big open sky. So beautiful.

The mountains near grandma's cemetery - perfect isn't it?

We had a short dedication ceremony at the grave site and each of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren placed a flower on her casket.

After the internment, we headed a mile or so down the road to a local church where we had a big family dinner. The folks from a Ward in Lewiston (I think a Ward is basically a congregation, but it's based on where you live - sort of like school districts?) were kind enough to let us use the space (which we needed for our very large family) for the meal. It was great to be able to spend more time together and the kiddos could play and play and play to their hearts content.

Andrew and Aubrey with Jayne and Jade, two of my second cousins

We got back to Cathy and Loron's late Saturday night and by that time we had just enough left in us to pack up our stuff and get to bed because we had an early flight out on Sunday (as in we had to leave the house at 3 am!).

This about sums up how we all felt by the end of the weekend

It really was a whirlwind weekend, but I'm so glad we were all able to be there to say goodbye to our grandmother. She truly was an amazing woman and after learning more about her life from the stories that were told this weekend, I realized I have even more in common with her than I ever thought. The apple really doesn't fall far from the tree. I love you grandma Beth!