Gramps' Funeral

It is no secret to those that know me well that I hate funerals. I am such a sap that they make me cry, and I don't like to cry in front of others. I was dreading Gramps' funeral; the march into the church with everyone watching, the endless condolences from concerned friends, the black clothes, and let's not even talk about the viewing. But now that it is behind us, I can honestly say it was a good experience.

All of the J-boys were able to make it to Idaho to pay their final respects. It was wonderful to have the family around. Josh gave a tearfully wonderful tribute for Gramps--I am so proud of him! We were able to laugh over old stories, and cry with each other. It has been one of the best-hard experiences of our lives. Everything just seemed to go right. We even had clear roads and no wind, hard to believe in January.

We forgot our camera (of course), so I stole these pictures from Shelly & Beth until I can get a chance to download the ones we took on Grams & Gramps' camera. Thanks girls!

the J-boys standing in order, youngest to oldest with Grams & Shauna: Todd, Mark, Kyle, Eric, Jarrod, Josh

And just look at this view. This is the view from Grams & Gramps' house & also from the cemetery were Gramps was buried & where someday, hopefully a long time from now, Josh & I will also be buried. I hope it looks the same on resurrection morning!

To the Rescue...one more time...

Once again, Alan & Heather came to the rescue. When it became evident that we would be at the hospital much longer than planned, they took the babysitter home & entertained our boys. I pirated the following pictures from their blog. Some of the photos were too hilarious not to share!

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Here Alan is teaching Jake how to play Red Alert on the computer, apparently, he did really good!

Alan & Heather always do silly things with the boys. They are so good to them! Here are some $1 costumes that they found at the DI this week. Lander's is tiny, meant for an 18-month old.

They watched Star Wars and Lander decided that he was a Jedi. Here is his famous Jedi pose (pretend he is holding a light saber).
Jedi ATTACK! ...and the Jedi dies. I guess the bad guys won.

Alan & Heather have been sooo good to us. I don't know what we would do without you guys. Thanks for all you do. We REALLY appreciate it!!!!!

"Crazy, crazy"

How do you say good-bye to someone who has impacted your life more than anyone will ever know? That was our dilemma on Saturday as we said our "see you laters" to Gramps and watched him slip away.

In typical Gramps style, he fought it out, surprising everyone with his ability to keep going. He was taken off his medications & the tubes were removed from his throat. We expected him to be with us for an hour, two tops if we were lucky. But instead we got nearly 11 hours. It was a long day. What a gift!

Gramps was alert, although weak, and we were all able to be with him, to talk to him. He kept telling us how much he loved his family, even asking about Jake & Lander in the last moments before unconsciousness overtook him. I will never forget his "Hey, pal", his greeting each time Josh called his name. He made jokes, laughing at one point because he couldn't seem to die. He told us "Crazy, crazy. I can't die. They don't want me yet. Crazy, crazy." as he quietly chuckled. He was so calm & accepting.

He left this life in dignity and grace at 11:11 pm with his family at his side, sad to have him leave us, but grateful to have had the chance to love this great man.

We love you Gramps & miss you tons!

Island Park Sledding

Meet "The Hill": Meet "The Victims":

Meet "The Ride"

Meet "The Casualties":
Who are we kidding? It was FUN!

airborn

Josh & Nate came up with a little game, "see how far you can huck your child".

The culprits: Josh, Nate, Jake, Walker

Jake

Lander

Walker

Don't let Lander fool you. No children were harmed during the filming.

Island Park

We had made arrangements a few months ago to stay in a cabin with Nate, Hilary, Daisy & Walker F. over the Christmas break. Grams encouraged us to go, and we are glad that we did. It was a much needed break from the stresses at home, and it turned out better than we had hoped! Our reservation got messed up, so instead of the old cabin we had reserved, we got to stay in a beautiful new cabin. It was awesome!

our Christmas story

Sometimes we don't recognize how wonderful "normal" can be. To me, if something is normal, it is expected, routine. We all expected a normal Christmas this year; family in town, Dixie working over the holidays, playing with cousins, you know the drill. But, this year our Christmas decided to deviate out of our norm.

It started on Christmas eve. We had a wonderful dinner in Driggs with Grams & Gramps. Other family had come up for the holidays. Jarrod & Shelly, Shauna, & Todd plus our family were all packed into Grams & Gramps' home.

After dinner, Gramps wasn't feeling well, bad enough that we begged him to go to the ER, and after some major begging, he finally consented to go. He was admitted into the tiny Driggs hospital for antibiotics. What a way to spend Christmas Eve! I wish that is where the story ended.

But it doesn't.

We got a call at 3 am Christmas morning. Gramps was being transported by ambulance to our largest hospital, the ambulance bucking snow drifts and braving a white out to get him to a more equipped facility. Grams & everyone staying at her house were hopelessly snowed in.

We were having our fist blizzard.

We scrambled to find a sitter, but who do you get at 3 am on Christmas morning? We called Alan & Heather, but they had recently been playing middle of the night phone pranks on Dustin, so their phone was turned off. Josh decided to go alone.

He drove down the dark highway. Only one set of tracks were visible, those of the ambulance, a few minutes ahead of him. He arrived at the hospital finding Gramps alert, but in pain. No one was quite sure what was going on.

To make a long story a little shorter, lab tests revealed that Gramps was in septic shock, a very dangerous condition, and he was dying. So to save his life, doctors placed a tube down his throat, allowing machines to breathe for Gramps, and pumped his body full of medicines to control the side effects of the shock and kill the germs causing the sepsis.

Josh was able to stay by his side all day as Gramps fought for his life. It was a hard day. I stayed home with the kids, making arrangements, relaying calls, feeling helpless. The kids couldn't understand why I kept crying or why they couldn't just open there presents. I finally told them they could each pick one present to open. And this is what I found:

Wow.

Each & every present with Jake & Lander's name on it had been opened. They were having a marvelous time, and I cried some more!

It didn't feel like Christmas at all.

Luckily, things are starting to smooth out. Against difficult odds, Gramps seems to be healing. We are almost too afraid to hope. None of us want him to suffer, but if he can recover, we aren't ready to see him leave yet either.

So, now we just watch and wait. And remember the good times with the man that Josh looks up to the most. The man who taught Josh how to enjoy work, how to honor his priesthood, how to love his family. So many lessons, so much love.
We love you Gramps aka Peepaw!