Hood Canal

On our way back Ben, his friend Mandy and Nick and I decided to stop at our families cabin on Hood Canal.

We decided to take the extra time and ride the ferry over, it was cold but so beautiful. We got to see a submarine on our way into the harbor.

Whenever I explain this house to anyone, I always say that it looks like the 70's died in there.

 It probably doesn't look like much to most people, but to me and my family, this was a huge part of our childhoods. Our Grandfather had it floated in on a barge and we all spent most of our weekends here.

It was an absolutely beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky.

It was so much fun to show Nick some of the things we use do to, the places that we would play. To give him a glimps into my childhood.

We got there too late for low tide, but Ben was determined to get some oysters so he decided that he was just going to swim out and grab a few. The water is freezing, especially so early in the year so he didn't make it too far but he gets points for trying.

Despite the fact that the oars didn't quite fit and none of us are professional rowers by any means, we decided to take our little boat it. It was a rocky start but we started getting pretty far. We rowed around for a bit then decided to head back in. Ben and I were rowing together and only second after we had started back towards shore my oar broke. We all laughed and I did my best to keep rowing, only moments later though Ben's oar broke as well! We couldn't control ourselves, we could hardly keep the boat from rocking with how hard we were laughing. Typical Nick saved the day and rowed us back to shore, safe for one more adventure.

We only got to stay for the day, I could have stayed there forever. We had a fire, cooked some oysters we had grabbed when the tide went out then made our way back to Utah.

All Together

It was so great to see our Grandma again, for most of us it had been quite a while. Her memory is fading, so we heard the same stories and told the same answers but it was good for us. More than likely, this was our last goodbye to a women who taught us all so much, and loved us even more.

This is the first time all of us siblings have been together in so many years, Everyone but Frank was able to get together in 2013, so we couldn't miss this chance to get one last picture of the original six.

In Honor of Nancy

After grave we all went down town, one of my Mom's favorite things to do. We spent the afternoon at Pike Place Market, it is famous for the guys who throw the fish around without ever dropping them. Ben got the chance to throw it with them, it was so much fun to watch and he was brave for trying.

We tagged along with Kim's family to ride the monorail and walk around a little more before heading back, it was such a fun time, that for a while, we forgot to be sad.

Grave Site Service

Monday we had the grave site service, just family and a couple of close friends. It was so hard to say our final goodbyes, but slowly each of us were able to turn away, remember the best things about our mom, wife, daughter and sister.

Memorial

Saturday we had a memorial service for everything in the area, we held one in Utah, so we got everything ready in no time.

Since we moved when I was five I don't remember most of the people that came but it was great to see the people that I did, and to spend time with our Grandma.

Go, Go, Go

Nick arrived in Utah on Friday, everyone but Ben and I had left on their way to Washington so we picked him up at the airport and started the 13 hour drive to Seattle.

The night we got there we decided to take a trip into Seattle to see the Space Needle. We went there a lot when we were little so being there brought back so many memories.

It was so nice to have a few days with just the two of us, no kids needing our help, just us being together.

Blessings In Disguise

The day my family has had in the back of our minds finally came, my mother passed away the morning of February 23rd. We book a flight for the kids and me, only to wake up that morning to find a freak snow storm. Nick was late getting back, the kids were being less than cooperative and traffic was crazy. It seemed like everything was against us getting to the airport in time. We finally arrived, only to learn we were too late to check in and would not be flying out that day. I was furious at everything. It turned out to be a real blessing in disguise however. I was able to call everyone through Skype and say goodbye to my mom. I was not able to see her, but she could see me so even though I couldn't do it in person, I was still able to tell her how much I love her and appreciate everything she has done for me and taught me. We got on a flight the next morning, the kids did great the whole way there. The longest flight was half empty so the kids could climb around a little and the flight attendants were fantastic, bringing mars bars back for them occasionally.

We finally made it very late in the day, 2 am at home, and everyone was more than ready to be done for the day. We went to my Dad's, all of my sisters had already made it there, it was so nice to be walking into a house with so much love even under bad circumstances.

The first day I was there we went to dress her, this was my chance to say goodbye in person so it was very hard for me but I am so glad that I went. The next hours were spent preparing for the memorial service being held in Utah. It was a crazy hectic night, but we all got it done eventually, and still new that we all loved each other.

Imagination Time

We bought huge carpets to put in a couple of room and they came wrapped around these 9 ft long cardboard tubes.

William thought it would be fun to use it as a slide so he pulled out all of the dominoes and tried racing them down the tube.

We used it for balls, cars, pretty much everything. The Elders came over for dinner and raced cars with him and helped him build a ramp at the end of one. 

These are the things that are always the most fun.

Dinosaur Museum

About an hour from our house is an amazing dinosaur museum.

They start with the creation of the world and go through time as you walk through.

They had an audio set you could rent so that you could hear what the signs say in English

This was where the dinosaurs really started, this was a whole canyon set up, the dinosaur moved and made noises. We were leaving and William begged to go back and look at the little stream flowing down. As we stood there the sky darkened and they replicated thunder and lightening. All of a sudden, a huge wave of water came crashing down, I was holding Kaelyn and I thought for sure that we were going to get totally soaked so I jump back as far as I could, We didn't get even a drop on us, but Nick said it was totally priceless to see the look on my face.

All of the bugs and animals moved, and Kaelyn was mesmerized.

I made sure to be a good mom even if it meant making a fool of myself to explain how everything worked to them. 

Ironically, William was really scared, and it just got worse the farther we went through. By the time we got to the T-Rex, he was terrified that it was going to get him. Kaelyn on the other hand, waved to it, said he and roared back before running away giggling.

They had a 3D show about the daily life of dinosaurs, I was out in the hall with William but Kaelyn and Nick loved what they got to see of it.

One of the last things we saw was a 3D movie about Megladon (the biggest shark to ever live). You walked into what looked like the inside of a boat, the walls pulled up and you saw it swimming in the ocean. He crashed into the wall cracking it, and that is when William lost it. He was yelling to go, begging me to hurry before we got hurt. We went out, a few minutes later having been sprayed with water. They said he crashed into the glass again cracking and got sprayed with a thick mist of water.

William's favorite part was the huge playground they had. This picture only shows about half of the play area, which included just about every kind of toy that is outlawed in the states.

We had so much fun, we were there for almost 4 hours. We'll be going back one day, when William is a little older and can understand a little bit better that it is just pretend.