Category: Family

Back Home

Didn’t I just say I was going home? But now I’m back home? Oh, I’m so confused.

We left here on Saturday early afternoon. It was comical trying to get through security, but everything worked out just fine. We were even able to sit all together on the airplane, which worked out well. The girls really enjoyed the flight. The refreshments served were particularly exciting. We were surprised how cool it felt in Phoenix once we got there. Julie especially wasn’t prepared for it, mostly because we had to pack so quickly. So she went out to WalMart on Saturday night and got some hip new jackets for the girls.

It was good to see everyone. Grandma’s nieces came, representing the Oregon contingency. Susi, Mike, and Traci came from the other Utah contingency (the one that hasn’t yet been disowned for living there). And there were the usual cast of suspects from Phoenix and vicinity. I often think that it’s bizarre that it takes an event like the death of someone close to us to get us all together. But at least we all were able to get together.

The funeral was on Monday. It was a relatively small service held at the Sunland mortuary in Sun City. Abby was a little concerned when she saw Grandma. She said that her lips didn’t look right — like they had been frozen together or something. I tried to explain a few things to her, we went out to look for the swans, and she seemed a little better. I’m sure she’ll remember her as I do — smiling and laughing. So I’m not too worried about it.

Somehow I was volunteered to speak at the funeral, “representing” the grandchildren. As I said in my comments there, it’s funny how my comments have gone from being labeled as biting sarcasm to somehow poetic or profound. I guess it’s amazing what moving 700 miles and reading words instead of hearing them will do. Either way, it was good to be able to speak there. The only comment I got from anyone was that I should have written something down. I guess that means I missed a few things and that perhaps I rambled some. Oh well. It all worked out well.

Krisanne had her baby about 12 hours after Grandma died, which was a bit of a microcosm of the whole thing — life’s cycles and renewals and all that. Baby’s name is Sophia, and she had a bit of a hard time getting here, but she’s doing well. Krisanne was able to go home yesterday and they’re expecting baby anytime now. I think we should expect Aaron to join the blogging elite fairly soon.

We didn’t make it out to Surprise. Julie felt that it was too early to go back out there. It was a bit awkward to be back in Phoenix so soon after moving. All the drama and emotions of the goodbyes we just had to go through were a little fresh, I suppose.

Well, enjoy the pictures. I guess my thoughts tonight aren’t as profound as expected, but that’s the breaks, I guess.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

Back to the grind tomorrow.

Going home

Looks like we’ll all be heading home tomorrow for the funeral on Monday. It should be an interesting flight. Luckily the flight was about 40% cheaper today than it was when I checked it last night, so that will help. But it should still be interesting. Abigail was on a plane 2 or 3 times the first 2 or 3 months of her life, but she hasn’t since. None of the other girls have been on a plane, and not even Julie has flown since 9/11. It should be fun to watch us go through security. I also checked what seats we’ve been assigned on this completely booked flights, and we’ve all been assigned separate rows. I would imagine we’ll be making some other people mad when the airline lets us sit together. I look forward to all the comments, both repeatable and not so much. Of course US Airways seems to enjoy annoying me and other travelers, so who knows what will happen. Hopefully they will disappoint me this time and actually provide good service.

On another note, Julie has been playing around with our little camera and PhotoShop. She seems to be getting more interested in it all again. She took a bunch more pictures today and posted them to flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/midder/

She’s even putting her signature on them now. She’s very fancy.

The weather report for the last 3 days has said that it was going to be 30, but it’s never gotten above 18. Even now, it says that it’s 18 here, while saying that the high will be 31. I would imagine that it will be a bit warmer in AZ, although the forecast does look a bit cool the next few days (by Phoenix standards, that is).