Saying Goodbye to Grandpa

I had to get closure and be near grandma, so we loaded up the car and all four kids and headed to California. This is the first time traveling with the babies so we didn't know what to expect, but we knew it wouldn't be easy.

The babies did really well the first two days. The first day they slept most of the way to Reno. It was harder getting a cheap hotel with 4 kids. Most of the hotels charge extra for more than 2 children, and for adding a crib. We found one that was reasonable in downtown Reno. My parents were in a car following us and got a room next to ours. That evening their car was broken into and their side window was smashed. They had to do a quick fix with cardboard and a garbage bag so we could hurry on to California. The kids did pretty well on Day 2 and we were surprised how well the drive went.

On Friday we had a nice memorial service for grandpa. He didn't want a funeral so we did a family memorial service on his ranch with a few of his close friends. This was the first time all of the cousins have been together in years.


below my mom is speaking at the memorial


Here is my family- minus Matt's wife and daughter



my parents and their grandchildren - below

And the whole family with grandma. 

After we said goodbye, we knew that grandpa wouldn't want us to be sad, so we enjoyed the rest of the visit. The kids had so much fun on the ranch, riding horses,climbing trees, finding cool bugs and animals, and just playing in the dirt!

 Smiling with Auntie Pam

Then we headed to the beach for some fish n chips and playing in the sand

Overall the trip went well and better than I expected. I was so glad that I got to see grandma and spend time with her on the ranch. The kids and I were enjoying it so much that we didn't want to go home. We headed back to Reno, then to Boise and luckily it was rather uneventful.