Road Trips and Family

Sorry it's been so long, everyone! When Kristin went back to school in August, she took her computer with her. I finally bought myself my very own laptop with my tax refund in February, but I do not have internet at home. Posts may be few and far between for a while until I can afford to get some internet. Today I have access to WiFi, so I thought I'd post an update. Well, a series of updates. A lot has happened since August, and if I put it all in one post it'd be about ten feet long.

In the end of August we made a road trip to Utah. It was time to take Kristin back to BYU, to finish out her final year of college. I got to meet James for the first time, which was fun! Mom and I dropped Kristin off with her things and let her get unpacked and ready to start school, while we continued on to visit grandma Jones in Cedar City. Kristin and James joined us a couple days later. We had a wonderful time visiting with grandma and grandpa, and all our family in Cedar. James fit right in with everyone, and laughs were abundant.

 Wes owns that corner. 

 Sorry it's blurry. The only other photo if James I had on this trip was of him asleep in Sunday school. :)

I'm so glad that we decided to make an extended trip to visit grandma, because it also meant that we had time with uncle Dan before he died. We took a lot of family photos before we left, and they're so precious to me now.

Unfortunately, in October we had to make the trip all over again for a very sad reason. Uncle Dan passed away, and we wanted to go to the funeral. I had to fight tooth and nail to get the time off to go, but I needed the closure. Uncle Dan's death was so sudden and unexpected, I sort of felt I couldn't believe it if didn't go to the funeral. Uncle Dan always seemed like a very large, unmovable boulder in my life. I thought he would always be there, like he was part of the mountain in Cedar. It was hard to say goodbye. When my dad died, I was so afraid that I would forget him. Forget what he looked like, his mannerisms, his voice. But just when I would think I was losing him, uncle Dan would come and bring him back to me. He'd tell me stories about when he and my dad were kids, and all the crazy shenanigans they would get into. It was hard to realize that we would never have those conversations again.

One good thing that came of uncle Dan's death was that it brought all the family together for the first time in a long while. It was so good to see everyone again, and to take comfort in familiar faces. Over the past ten years or so, I've been able to visit with all my cousins at various times, and fairly frequently considering the distance we all are from each other. But this was the first time in over ten years that I've been able to see them all together at once. Of course once we were all together, the first thing I thought was, "WE MUST HAVE PHOTOS!!" Hahaha!

 We managed to get Wes to take the shades off for these, but the hat wasn't budging! :)

 We've got a classic Rachel face in this one.

I sincerely hope that when we die, we are allowed to attend our own funeral. Just so that we can see how much we are loved, how many lives we have touched, and how many people will remember us. There was certainly a lot of love at uncle Dan's funeral. A lot a sadness and heartache, too. But love will win; it always does.