Trip to South Carolina

Ben was amazing through all of this, and I was not envious of all he had to do in a short amount of time.  He put on Jack's birthday, made sure everyone was packed, got the kids to bed on time, and got everyone to the airport early the next morning.  They arrived in Columbia in time for dinner, and it was so great to see them!  They started playing with cousins as soon as they could.

Waffle House breakfast (at home, since they were only open for carryout)

Sydney likes Waffle House!  (Of course she does.)

While the spouses were home with the kids, the siblings were at the funeral home
for the first day of the viewing.  We had two three-hour viewing periods so that people
could spread out and there wouldn't be too many guests in the room together.  Dad
came in town and it was great to spend some time with him too!

A cousin in Kentucky drove his family down just to spend a few minutes with us.

We couldn't sit in the benches on the premises, so we had shave ice in our cars.
Except for Colin and Jack who walked from car to car.

By Saturday morning, we'd cleared everything out of Mom's apartment
and we finished sorting through things at Megan's house.  Stacie, a cousin
who drove down from Ohio to be with us, and Maddie, my nephew's girlfriend,
were extra helpful with this.

We had a second viewing Saturday afternoon, followed by a private
memorial service in the funeral home chapel.  It would have been wonderful
to honor Mom with a big funeral so that more people could have paid their
respects, but I actually really appreciated this little service.  Cat played piano,
I sang a song, Suz did a reading (which ended up providing some unintentional
comic relief when she was bombarded with questions from the kids), and then
there was time for everyone who so desired to stand up and share thoughts or
memories of Grammy.  It was really lovely.

The whole clan.

I love these guys.

Sunday was Mother's Day.  We got up early to start traveling home.

We got some bonus time with California cousins; they were on the same

flight to DFW, then we parted ways.

  

It was really nice to finally get back home.  My family had received meals, cards, treats, and gifts in my absence, making me even more aware of the blessing of having good people in my life.  I was moved by the kindness shown to us.  We are blessed in so many ways.

Finally home again.

It wasn't a celebratory day by a longshot.  But I think I was a little extra thankful for my family, and my faith, and my home.  I'm also thankful for the many years I had with my earthly mother on earth, and for the knowledge that I can see her again.  We are all so blessed.

This is the card I'd made for her, which arrived at her apartment while we were cleaning it out that week:

Happy Mother's Day to me!

SD Week 8 - Mom in SC, Jack's Birthday

I was in South Carolina the entire week, spending time with my family and working like crazy getting Grammy's apartment cleaned out and making final arrangements.

We were very busy and it was helpful that the kids were at home in Utah with Ben.  Unfortunately, it was crazy for them at the house too.  And I was sad to miss Jack's birthday.  Ben managed to make it special, though, and some fun presents and a birthday cake helped it feel more normal.

SD Week 7 - Planting, Haircutting, Hiking, Chickening

A few highlights from the week....

Monday

We got the bulk of our garden planted!  This included several rows of seeds and several plants.  Luke was most excited about trying to grow watermelon.  And we made sure we'd have plenty of tomatoes for Jack, and the rest of us.

Tuesday

The boys' long hair was driving me crazy so we decided to
cut it ourselves.  The girls were really excited to try their hand
at haircutting, but Jack made the first cut.

Cat and Ben were double-teaming Jack.  His haircut took forever (at least 4x longer than
the time a professional would take) but he was a good sport.  I promise that he was
exaggerating his discomfort in this picture, which we found entertaining.

I don't know if you'll find this video as entertaining as we do, but here it is anyway.

Before & After

Wednesday

We had some arts & crafts time making cards for the wonderful mothers
in our family while we listened to Candy Shop Wars.

Some neighbors were testing out the equipment on their new Jamba Juice truck
so we enjoyed free smoothies and some social distancing chats with friends.

We violated social distancing for a short visit with Tony and his family.

This wonderful little family moved back to Wisconsin later in the week.
I'm so glad we could see them in Utah one more time.

Thursday

Cat's first real ortho appointment since everything shut down.
She's SO CLOSE to getting those braces off!

We loved seeing the statewide flyover!

Friday

Eliza decided to give the couch a try for her homeschool.
She decided to stick with her bedroom for the following week.

I'm so thankful that Cat was willing to relieve me from always being Jack's teacher.
She was a great help with math and grammar!

In the afternoon I took the kids for a hike on the Rock Canyon trail.

Luke interpreted this sign as "Do the Extreme."

Saturday

After toying with the idea for quite a while, we took the plunge and acquired our
first pets chickens-for-the-purpose-of-providing-eggs.  They were less than a
week old when we got them and we all fell in love right away.

Grammy passed away a few hours after we took this picture.

Ben bought me these beautiful roses for our anniversary and
we had a good talk while he took me to the airport that night.

Sunday

8 hours later I'd met up with my brother in Charlotte, NC,
and we were boarding a little plane headed to our hometown.

Sunday evening family video chat.

This week's collection of flowers.