Hello Utah!

Here I am in Utah!  I actually found out my grandpa died yesterday AM about 6:30 and I bought my ticket for a 10 am flight by 7 am.  It was CRA-ZY.  For those of you who know me any at all, you know I’m a planner so me dashing through the house to pack for me and P was fairly ugly.  It’s nice now that we’re here though.  P slept through the night for the first time in a while last night.  YAY!  I did, however, forget to pack my flute (which I only play at church or at funerals) so it’s being overnighted to me.  Booooo to me.  Yay for Drew who came through like a champ, and wil be at home with the boys for the weekend.

In the insanity that was yesterday AM I wasn’t able to think much about my grandpa, and it’s interesting that I don’t really think of him in a way that the rest of my cousins do.  I loved my granpda and because he was close by while we were growing up I got to spend a lot of time with him, including a couple of my parent’s trips to Europe that he and my grandma watched us for  I’d like to just relieve just a few memories here, I’m sure most of you want to skip this post, and that’s fine, but I assure you, it’s mildy amusing. 🙂

1.  My grandpa poured concrete.  I remember watching him and my two uncles pour the concrete for their new home when I was about 8 or so.  I thought that was so cool!  He was a teacher, and during the summers he’d do that to make some extra money (hello Drew! :p).  I thought it was so neat how he had that skill.  They all carved their initials in the sidewalk and I thought it was extra cool since he actually POURED the concrete.  I’ll have to get a picture of it when I’m over there one of these days.

2.  My grandpa had a huge love for history.  Let’s just say his house wasn’t a place for children as he got older.  Antiques of every kind sat everywhere.  One time we were all there for Onion Days (I know, now you’re intrigued, see below) and he had a nice 15 minute lecture on the importance of an onion topper (it would cut off the tops of the onion).  I thought my younger cousins were going too pee their pants, with the length of the story he was telling and how useless it seemed to all of us.  He loved history, and he loved to share it.

3.  Onion days (for those of you not of the Utah kind, each town has their own “days” — strawberry days, art city days, rodeo days, steel days — and yes, I am serious).  Payson has onion days, as I guess onions were a pretty important crop to their town initially.  We used to always go down to the tire store and watch it.  My uncles were tease mercilessly all the floats going by (and there are some doozys) and my grandpa would get so mad.  He felt like this was a thing to be honored, not mocked.

4.  Missions.  My grandparents served 3 missions.  Two to Indiana and one to Redding, CA.  I was amazed a how much he loved that work.  The work of couple missionaries is different than those of the boys you see.  They help to bring wards together, help to organize and also share the gospel.  They loved their time out in the mission field.  They were actually on a mission when my first uncle died in a plane crash.  Although it was a really hard time for them, they realized that a mission was the reason that Brad’s death would be OK.  I think they actually returned to the mission field after a period of grieving.

5.  Thrifty.  Honestly, I’d put him more on the cheap end of the spectrum than the thrifty side, but the guy knew how to save a dollar.  It’s honestly sad that he didn’t spend more money while he was alive.  It’s not to say that he had a lot of money, but he used it well.  It’s nice to know that even on a one-income teachers salary they enjoyed travel growing up and he and his wife enjoyed travel even later in life.  He just knew when to save and when to spend.  It’s a great lesson in life.

6.  He ADORED Conner.  Conner was the first great-grandkid (go me!).  he loved to hear Conner read and enjoyed showing Conner some of the things from history that he’d restored.  There were plenty of times he couldn’t remember any of the other great grandkid’s names but he could sure remember Conner’s.  Conner is lucky to have someone on his side from heaven now.

All in all I have a hard time thinking of my grandfather without thinking of my two uncles.  They each preceeded him in death for several years.  I know it was hard for him to keep going without his boys.  His wife died about 3 years ago and it’s been a struggle for him ever since.  Those of the LDS faith believe that families are forever.  He and my grandma were married in the Salt Lake temple for time and all eternity and I have a personal knowledge that this doctrine is true.  I know he was greeted in heaven by a loving family who was happy to know he was home.  We are so lucky that we were able to visit him on this last trip to Utah.  Even though he was in the nursing home, he was still the same grandpa that I remembered.  I’m glad I can remember him that way.

Love you grandpa!