Unexpected Trip

ben's 'grandma lois' passed away last week. she was his step gma, who his grandpa buchanan married after his grandma buchanan died. their home was in richfield, utah, so we packed everyone up and drove 9 hours there and 9 back, over 1100 miles, in less than 4 days. it was better than i expected! i have this big phobia lately of putting myself or my kids in a position where we are set up for failure, but ben prevailed and convinced me it was more important that we be there. we stayed at lisa and eldon's one nite and by david and sheri durham on the way back. we went to church with their family and then we even crashed annika's birthday party on the way home, so our kids could get some energy out!!!

the weather couldn't have been better! it was a beautiful couple of days we were down there. lots of family members were there....including all NINE of ben's siblings. my mother in law also had all of her living brothers and sisters there and many of ben's cousins. it was fun to see everyone again...sad, that it had to be a funeral, but great none the same. grandma lois had lived a full life. i met her at our wedding reception and then again at a cousin's wedding a few years ago. i thought it was summed up well at the end of her funeral, when a son in law said some people you have to think of what nice things to say at their funeral, but at gma lois' there were so many positive things about her that they hoped they had covered everything! i enjoyed hearing about her life...and i also have a firm resolve to get down and see my grandpa this summer!

we played many card games, watched a few movies, and read books to pass the time in the car. we made a few pitstops as well. bridon did great, since he doesn't nap and being buckled in his seat sent him right to sleep after a long day. he was sure to have his screw driver and electrical tape in his pocket. bentley wore out thomas uno and old maid with me. he found a green airplane at the church and played with it all during the funeral and on the way home. on the last day, he crashed it into his seatbelt holder, never to be seen again. emry did ok. she wouldn't let go of bentley's toothbrush before the funeral. and the ride down was a little rough, but the ride home was much better except for sat nite when she had HAD it. we had fun searching for all the temples lit up, one after another, as we came up from down south into the salt lake valley.

we were there for the viewing and funeral, as well as the luncheon afterwards. we broke it up for our kids by going to the park and swimming twice at the "otel". we hit a couple of great clothing sales, only lost a sock and a suit hanger, and were able to go out to venice to ben's grandparents' burial site before making our way out of town. i feel like a traveling fool as of late, but i'm glad we were able to go! and glad that we found our car keys after bridon, the key guy, carried them in for us from the viewing and conveniently dropped them in ben's duffel bag. :)