Funeral weekend pics

This is a lot of us, the kids and grandkids in my family, at the cemetery. 

 

Ellie at the funeral luncheon.  I just can't get over how fair skinned she is and how blue her eyes are.  Silly girl. Is she really mine?

 Benny enjoying his strawberry cake.  The story behind it was so cute. His cousin Mayumi had a piece of strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.  Benny was dillydallying eating, and we told him he better hurry and finish his food so he could have dessert.  When he went up to the dessert table all the strawberry cake was gone, and he had to settle for some German chocolate cake.  As soon as took his first bite a lady walked by with a whole tray of cake, many being pieces of strawberry.  Benny stared longingly and exclaimed, "Aw, man!!! I should have waited!"
He looked so disappointed I couldn't tell him no and let him get a piece of strawberry. Doesn't he look like he's enjoying it?

What better way to celebrate death than with new life? It was a great ending to the weekend when we were able to attend Kimiko's baby Lilli's blessing.  She got permission to do it in Grandma's ward since there would be so much family in town. She had dragged her feet on what to do about the blessing as she wanted people to be able to attend, but knew they probably wouldn't be able to make it to California.  It worked out that they were able to do it with all her siblings being present.

 Speaking of the siblings, here we are, left to right, oldest to youngest.

 A bunch of the grandkids and great grandkids (Grandma Doris's great-great grandkids!):

 All of us who attended the blessing.  Dad's brother Keith and sister Karen were also there.

 I think this one is hilarious.  This is at Janice's house after church at dinner.  Spencer is an RN and works weird hours and is always asleep on this couch.  It looks like Mariko just stuck the baby on him.  I was so worried Spencer didn't know he was there and would move and knock him off or something.

Grandma Doris

We drove in to Utah early in the morning Aug 1st.  We were supposed to head to our new place in Orem.  As we were somewhere in the desert on our way to Utah, the landlord texted to say the floor was not done yet, and he was so sorry, but it would be best if we found a place to stay for the night.  He felt really bad as he had promised us we could drive right in and crash for the night. He even offered to get us a hotel.

Well, no big deal, we decided we'd just drive 100 miles out of the way for the night.  Chad, who drove the Uhaul, could go home and we would go visit Grandma in the morning.

You never know how blessings pop up. Grandma passed away the next week, and that unexpected trip was the last time Ben got to visit with her.  The kids and I went up again that weekend for a great visit, not knowing she would be gone two days later.

Grandma had a stroke 2 years ago and her health had not been the same.  She was still witty and able to live at home, but she needed help and did not enjoy being dependent on people. There were many times over those 2 years that she went downhill and we thought it would be the last time we saw her, but she always managed to pop back up. This time we had told Kimiko that if she wanted Grandma to meet the new baby, Lilli, she better hurry and visit, as Grandma once again was not doing well. Kimiko and her family couldn't decide if there really was an urgency or not as this had happened so many times, but finally decided to make the drive.  We felt a little silly when she got here and Grandma looked better than ever. But then we realized what a blessing it was that Grandma was coherent and happy and was able to enjoy the visit. And we realized even more what a treasure that visit was when Grandma was gone 2 days later.

Grandpa and Grandma lived around the block when I was little.  They were always there within walking distance for ice cream or just to visit.  We saw them at church.  They took us places when they could, like a family camping trip one year.  They were great people and it was so hard to say goodbye 9 years ago when Grandpa died.  Grandma missed him terribly and one part of us wanted her to be able to be with him, and another knew how much we'd miss her once she was gone. 
And we do. 

The funeral was very nice, and we got to see a lot of family.  My brother Allan, who lives in St. Louis and doesn't visit often, was able to come, as well as Grandma's relatives in GA, HI, AZ, and CA.

Grandma hoped to be able to make it to the new Brigham City temple before she died. We were excited that tiny Brigham City would have such a beautiful and special place right in the middle of town.  She barely missed it and it opened to the public the day of her funeral.  I was sad as we drove past it and on to the cemetery.  But I can only imagine that she and Grandpa visit there together now.

 

I'm so glad to have known wonderful grandparents in my lifetime, and so grateful for those visits we were able to have over the summer.  As my 4 year old says, "I miss her, but I'm not sad.  I'll see her again."

Crazy little girl

I remember my sister saying something about being afraid to have a boy because of how crazy boys are. 

My boy is not the problem.

I don't know where this little ball of spunk came from.  Guess it serves us right for naming her after not one, but two, lively grandmothers.

 

A couple days ago I had a headache and was sitting down for a few minutes.  A few minutes is all it takes for a 4 year old to get his mom's hidden stash of m&m's and feed them to his sister. So I do blame that incident on him:)

 

She loves the tub.  If Benny gets a bath and she doesn't, she will shriek and yell.  The other day this 8 month old climbed in when the tub was empty and I caught her just before her head hit the porcelain.

She hates cows.  She will make the saddest face ever if she hears "moo."  We experimented with different animals, and she was fine with all of them except the moo.  Being the mean parents we are we kept moo-ing because it was so darn cute to see her make this face.  But then she did get pretty upset so we had to stop.

 

She makes a really interesting face which we call her "sour puss face."  We aren't sure why she does it but she does it everytime we eat dinner, and sometimes just because.  To add to the funnyness of it she pants loudly through her nose while she does the face, and sometimes "things" fly out of her nose.  I know that's gross but it is the most bizarre thing.  The video is worth watching although not super clear.

 

She truly is a joy to have around.  She is one of the happiest and smiliest babies I have ever seen, when she isn't being dramatic.

Summer catch up part 2

We made it to the Oakland zoo one last time.  We hadn't been to the famous Fenton's ice cream parlor yet, so we hit that on the way home.

 

We bought 3 ice creams, one being child size.  We spent $34.

And Ellie would have rather eaten the table.

Benny and Mayumi with their A's hats from Jennifer (the friend that works for the A's)

My awesome brother in law Chad said he would like to go to a baseball game, so why doesn't he fly out and go to a game then drive our Uhaul to Utah for us?  We said ok!
This was the longest game EVER (for the A's anyway) and finally ended after 5 hours in the 15th inning.  And we were supposed to get up early and make the long drive to Utah with our 3 cars in the morning.  At least we got to be part of history, right?

It's blurry but this sign was just for Benny. It says, "Benny, have fun at the game and GO A's! Love, Jenn"

And this one I was not expecting and almost cried, what with it being our last night in Cali and all.  It says, "Dear Middletons, Good luck with your move to Utah.  We will miss you.  Jenn & Eric"

 

Moving day!  Benny got these socks at the Monday night game from Jennifer and didn't take them off until Wednesday.  Silly boy.

 

We all made good time in our cars and with just a couple small hitches pulled into Chad's driveway about 12:30am Aug 1st.

Summer catch up part 1

The past couple months have been so craaaazy. But we had some good times.  Before we left California, we had our last hurrah.  Or last hurrahs.  We made sure to have fun.

 

 A friend who works for the Oakland A's posted on facebook all the cool signs she made for her friends that attended games.  We jokingly told her Ben wanted one for his birthday but it was too late.  Well she wasn't kidding about getting a sign done, and since our anniversary was in a few days, she did one for that and told us to jump in the car and get to the game. So we did!  Benny and I enjoyed our first pro baseball game, and Ellie did great.

 

We then did a beach trip. We visited Ben's dad and stepmom in Cambria.  Things were crazy there as well since they were in the process of selling their Bakersfield home and making the permanent switch to Cambria.  We were lucky they were willing to have us over:)

 One cool thing I never knew about all these years was the San Simeon elephant seals.  No idea why I never heard they lived right by Hearst Castle.  They were big, loud, and stinky. 

Then we headed to Lompoc so I could go to the Thai Cuisine one last time.  I'm sure we'll go to Lompoc and Cambria again, but it won't be as frequent since now we live 13 our so hours away. I really wanted a good beach day, and the weather magically cooperated.  We went to Regugio a couple times (well, Benny and I did. The fair skinned ones stayed home on day two). Refugio Beach is also where Ben proposed 9 years ago. We enjoyed the freezing water, getting bitten by sand crabs, viewing sea lions and dolphins in the distance, and watching kamikaze divebombing  pelicans.

We celebrated our annversary while we were in Lompoc and had my parents watch the kids while we went to dinner.  Ellie screamed the whole time:( Needless to say we don't go on many dates.

Benny has sure enjoyed his trips to La Purisima Mission and feeding all the animals.  This longhorn's horns span about 9 feet or something.  Am I remembering that correctly?

Then we came back and started packing.  I can't remember where I was but I think I took the kids somewhere so Ben could be productive and pack.  He got a little sidetracked and texted me the below pic while I was out.

And Ben finally made it to the Bay Discovery Museum in Sausalito.  I took Benny several times when we had a pass, and I know Ben thought it sounded cool by how much I raved about it.  Benny loved being able to show his dad everything there. It really is an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Mask

This boy.  As you may recall, he is an arcade claw master.  This was his prize.  I thought he'd give it away to a girl.  I was wrong.

July 4th

Another July, another birthday.  This year Ben just wanted to play it low key.  It's pretty much his last year he can get away with doing nothing since Benny is old enough to want to celebrate holidays.  So he slept in, played with the kids, and celebrated at home.  He once again requested Hawaiian food, so I made teriyaki beef and chicken (the beef sadly ended up tasting like beef jerky), kalua pork, and some noodle thing with char siu pork that has no name.  I should probably name it.

He also didn't make it to any Warriors games this year:( But he did need a nice new Warriors shirt before moving from the area.

We went to the park and Benny said it had been a great day:) Then Ellie had the most enormous blowout yet and Benny then said it was the worst day ever, so who knows.  I thought it was a good day.
Then we went to the ghetto and watched fireworks.  One thing I will appreciate in Utah is the warm summer nights.  We were so freezing we sat in the back of the car and watched out the back window.  Both kids stayed awake the entire time but fell asleep immediately on the way home.  And we all slept in today.  Ben even let me sleep in till 11:)

We felt kind of bad for turning down invites to do stuff, especially when we are leaving in a few weeks, but it really was a nice day together as a family.  Being jobless for two months does have its perks; we'll try to hit a few more fun spots together before Ben has to go back to work.