Goodbye to GG

Brent's grandmother, Carol, was a wonderful lady. Throughout the fourteen years that I've known her, she's been such a warm, gracious, loving person. She accepted me into her family and treated me as though I was one of her own grandchildren. She and I shared a love of christian fiction and we enjoyed trading books back and forth and discussing them. Grandmother loved our children and I still remember how special it was to introduce each child to her for the very first time. She had been sick for a number of months and we knew that she would not survive her illness. We knew that her health was declining, so Brent took a day off school to spend time with her. He visited with her and Grandpoppa, read her the Bible and tried to make her as comfortable as he could while he was there. He spent a number of hours with her in the early afternoon and that evening, she slipped from this world into the next. I'll always be glad that Brent had that time with her to say his final goodbyes. I wish I had had a chance to say goodbye too. We soon travelled to TN to pay our respects and attend the funeral. Although it was a really sad occasion, we enjoyed the family time so much and I know that Grandmother would have been pleased to have her whole family together. We'll miss her so much at family gatherings, but we have some amazing memories of her life and love.

On our trip down to Tennessee, Tristan asked me if he could color. After an extensive discussion about which coloring page he wanted, I handed him back a coloring book and a blue marker with which to color it. When I looked back a few minutes later, this is what I saw. Coloring fail. He thought he looked awesome!!!

Below: Soon after arriving in Tennessee, we headed over to GG and Grandpoppa's house for a family gathering. All the cousins were arriving and we were anxious to spend time with them. Maura spent her time at GG's house gathering up wisteria. I think I'll always connect that flower with GG as she had a gorgeous vine growing up a tree at her house.

Nan got in on the flower collection and they made a beautiful basket of flowers together.

Below: Tristan disappeared for a moment and I knew exactly where to look for him. He and Jack found the tractor and had a great time pretending to drive it. When I found them, Tristan was getting ready to head back to the house to look for the tractor keys. Believe me, if he had found them he would have started that tractor up and they'd be halfway to Texas by now!

Poppa got some cuddle time with Sweet Bennett. Actually, I'm surprised that Bennett survived his cuddle time--apparently he swiped three grapes off Poppa's plate and managed to pop them into his mouth before he was discovered! Yikes! Go-go-Gadget arms! Uncle Matt got a chance to hang out with his youngest nephew too. Bennett loved showing Uncle Matt his new moves!

It was Tristan, though, who most enjoyed his time with Uncle Matt, because Matt likes to rough house with the kids. Right up Tristan's alley! He kept encouraging Tristan to run at him and knock him over. Tristan was more than happy to oblige. I even caught Matt inviting Tristan to jump off the arm of the chair in true WWF fashion. I quickly nixed that idea. I think even tough Matt might get a bit hurt by 45 pounds landing on his chest! I truly wish that Matt lived closer so that he could have a closer relationship with his niece and nephews. Uncle Matt is COOL with his guitar playing, motorcycle riding, jet flying activities. Truly the stuff that little boy heroes are made of!

The fun didn't stop there for Tristan. He and John Henry found a tennis ball suspended from the garage ceiling. They looked like a couple of monkeys trying to catch that ball! Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. These two are going to get into serious trouble together someday. They're only five months apart in age.

Below: Speaking of monkeys--this little guy is truly a monkey these days. Now that he can crawl, he spends all his time trying to wiggle out of the arms of whomever is carrying him so that he can GO GO GO! He especially loves the challenge of trying to make it out through an open door before it's shut. He's a wild man!

We loved having the chance to visit with Caroline and Walton. Grandmother would have loved having all her grandchildren together at the same time. I'm really glad that she had the opportunity to have almost everyone together back in November at her birthday party. We were back at Aunt Claudia's house for the wake just like we'd gathered last November. I couldn't help comparing the two gatherings. In November, we were all together, celebrating GG's birthday and GG and Grandpoppa's 60th wedding anniversary. We knew GG was sick, so we wanted to celebrate her as much as possible and enjoy as much time with her as we could. We had a great party with all the kids present and took lots of photos. This time, we had a wonderful dinner provided by other people and talked over the good memories we had of Grandmother. It was still a wonderful time together, but we were missing a very important piece to our puzzle. We're going to miss GG a lot!

Even the subdued atmosphere of a funeral and wake couldn't dampen the spirits of these three loons! Riley, Ava and Maura had a great time playing together. Maura taught them all some gymnastics, to the detriment of the furniture!

Below: What a handsome husband and great daddy!

Amy, Ava and Myla flew in for the funeral. We were so happy to have them their and I was so excited to see my sweet nieces. The kids couldn't wait to play with their cousins...until Myla fell and cut her head open not long after this photo was taken. Amy and Poppa took her for a five and a half hour wait at the ER while Brent and I took over babysitting duties and threw Ava in with our three kids for a bath. Rub a dub dub--too many kids in this tub! Ava loved being part of all the commotion and Maura, Ava and Tristan pretty much played non-stop for the remainder of our visit. We can't wait to have Matt, Amy, Ava and Myla nearby when they move closer this summer!

In spite of our loss, we were able to have a wonderful visit down in Tennessee. We were blessed to be able to spend a few days there because it was Brent's spring break. More pictures to come!