Idaho Fun

I flew to Idaho for my Grandma's funeral and since I was spending all that money I decided to stay for the week and enjoy some family time.

I haven't flown in quite awhile and I haven't flown by myself for even longer so I was pretty nervous for the flight especially with a little baby. On the way to Idaho, I had to go from Seattle to Boise and then to Idaho Falls. I got to Seattle extra early since I had seen in news headlines that the security lines were horrible but I ended up making it through security and to my gate in about 30 minutes so McCall and I spent lots of time wandering through the airport. She ended up being a great little traveling companion. I fed her a little before our first flight and she slept the entire flight to Boise though started getting a little fussy since after we landed we had to sit on the airplane for about 20 minutes waiting for a spot to park. Then she was awake and happy during our layover and then slept again for the trip to Idaho Falls. The flight from Boise to Idaho Falls was gorgeous as I watched the setting sun from up above.

I spent most of my time with Derek and Amy's family since I was staying at their house. Karlton and Michelle's family are living with my parents right now so space wise it made sense for me to stay with  Derek and Amy. It was fun to have some extra time with them and everyone loved McCall especially Emily. Monday and Tuesday were spent in Rigby for the funeral and extended family time. Wednesday evening I went with Amy and the girls and Mom and Dad to a pumpkin patch along with some other fun things to do. It was a beautiful evening and it was a super fun way to spend the evening.

The sunflowers were all mostly done but it was still cool to walk around though it would be stunning to see them when they are all in bloom.

Thursday I spent most of the day with Erika and her two youngest. Mom, Charlotte, and I drove up and met them at Bear World. It was another really nice day and all the animals were out and the bears were pretty active which was fun to see.

These baby bears were so cute and fun to watch.

Fish feeding time

Then we went to the petting area and I was having some fun taking some selfies with some of the animals.

There was one goat that was pretty smart and whenever the kids would try and get food it would wait until they turned the knob and then would hurry in and eat the food right out of the dispenser. 

Then it was ride time.

The ferris wheel was pretty fun and Charlotte was my riding partner. 

It was fun to spend more time with her this week. She is growing up way too fast and is simply stunning and is very sweet with the right amount of sass. :)

I put McCall in this cute bear onesie for our day at Bear World.

We then spent some time at Derek and Amy's house. I made some cookies and then I went on a walk with the kids. We just walked around the neighborhood and found things we liked about each house as we passed.

Then we all went to Juliette's cross country meet. It brought back lots of memories and it was fun to watch her run and run from place to place with Dad cheering her on.

My little bed buddy for the week. She is just the sweetest thing and it was fun to let more family meet her for the first time.

Friday, I helped Derek in the morning with a breakfast at his house for his cross country team and then in the afternoon we watched the new top gun movie together. Then for dinner Mom and Dad came over along with Michelle and the kids. Don and Shel Williams, family friends, also came over for a couple hours and it was great to visit with everyone.

There is a little less than a year between these two but it is crazy to see the size difference. Callum's sweet smile is just the cutest thing.

I missed Nate, Paige, and Baylor so much while I was gone. Nate was incredibly supportive of me doing this and took off quite a bit of work to take care of everything at home. Paige was super sad that I went to Idaho without her but the timing was just not right for all of us to go. I loved my daily conversations with them and all the pictures I got. Paige was super helpful to Nate and Nate's parents helped out a lot too. I'm so grateful for such supportive and loving family.

They would send me daily pictures at school drop off.

I'm such a lucky mama to have these girls in my life.

The flight back home was Saturday morning. McCall did pretty good and slept most of the time though she did get a little fussy towards the end. There was some stunning views of Mount Saint Helen's and Mount Rainier and the Puget Sound by Tacoma. 

I started feeling sick about the last 10 minutes of my flight and thought I was getting some motion sicknesses. I held it together until I got home and ended up throwing up and had a super bad stomach ache. It was a rough weekend and was not how I wanted my first day back. I'm grateful it was conference weekend even though I didn't get much out of conference since I was either sleeping or in the bathroom. I'm grateful when it passed and it was awesome to see family and take part in the funeral and it is always good to be home.

In Memory of Sharon LaRue Hall Walker

The end of September, this incredible lady graduated to the next life. She has been wanting to go home for quite awhile now so it was expected but it is always hard to have this mortal separation. Grandma Walker has been such a influence for good during her life. She never knew a stranger, gave constant service, made everyone feel such love, and I'm the lucky one to have gotten to call her grandma.

She is now reunited with Grandpa and with so many other family and friends that she has been waiting a long time to be with again. My girls and I are so lucky to have another amazing guardian angel in heaven that will be ever present in our lives. 

Some of my favorite memories with Grandma are:

• Family Reunions at the Ranch- Grandma was always one that would bring fun activities and games for the grandkids to do.
• Sleepovers at Grandma's- all of us girl cousins would be lined up in the living room at night and then in the morning Grandma would make shape pancakes and/or the best waffles in the entire world.
• Grandma would always have homemade bread in the bottom drawer in her kitchen that was always devoured by everyone that stopped by.
• She always had the ability to cook the most delicious food and always had enough no matter who showed up and can make anything with whatever she had around the house. 
• Every year when I was little we would help move cattle from one field to my grandparent’s house in the winter. We would be put in driveways and fields and had to wave our arms in order to keep the cows on the road. Afterwards was fun cousin time and hot cocoa. The three little girls (Lisa, Emily, and I) had our own little tea set that we had hot chocolate under the table which is a cherished memory for me.
• Another fun memory with the three little girls, is we had a sleepover at Grandma’s with just us three and did some old-fashioned fun. We made pull taffy and it was the first time I ever bobbed for apples.
• More fun cousins memories at Grandma’s house was playing in the ditch in our underwear and pretending to shave our legs with mud and sticks, jumping on the trampoline, playing in the flooded yard, exploring the farm equipment, and lots and lots of rides on the four-wheeler in the pasture.
• Grandma was always one to play a game with you or color a picture with you. She had puzzles at her house that the grandkids and now great-grandkids have loved and the thing that any of them will always remember about Grandma’s house is the marble shoot. I will always remember the sound of the marbles going down the shoot and catching them at the bottom and seeing how many marbles we could line up at once before letting them go.
• At Christmas time, I often helped set up and decorate her Christmas tree which was always so much fun. For some year she had a train that went around the bottom of the tree that was fascinating to watch.
• On Fast Sundays, we would go up to Rigby to Grandma’s house to celebrate the birthdays for the month and have dessert and fun cousin and family time.
• Grandma was very service oriented and wanted to help in anyway that she could- she had Nate take a big pile of metal to get the money for it to help us when we were in college, she offered us meals and canned goods (even if some where expired by a decade 😊), produce from her garden, and she was often found at the senior center putting a smile on other’s faces and helping out with family, friends, and her community.
• Grandma was always one to join in the fun with the grandkids and was always a go-getter. She was active and loved doing the things we wanted her to do and be involved with us when we were around. She always was genuinely interested in your life and the things going on.
• Grandma was always at birthdays and other events and was very supportive to all her grandkids.
• Once I lived in Washington, Grandma came out to visit with Mom and Dad and it was a really fun memory and trip. We got to go to the ocean and Grandma loved going on adventures. She loved the ocean and towards the end of her life, she would always tell me to dip my toes in the ocean for her.
• Grandma made my blessing dress and my baptism dress. It was sweet to have McCall wear the same blessing dress since Grandma couldn’t be at the blessing in person.
• The last couple of years I wrote Grandma about once a month and I loved it when I would get a letter back from her and I will cherish those letters. I know that if I had lived closer, I would have been over there much more often. Whenever we were in Idaho, I loved going to Grandma’s house with my kids and sharing some of the memories I had with my own children. I loved dinner at Grandma’s and the feeling of love as you sat at the table with her.
• My all-time favorite thing about Grandma is how encouraging and joyful she was for other’s successes. I loved calling her with good news and her happy squeal for me was something that I will always remember.
• Her last words to me were “Hi sweetheart” and that moment was really hard to see her like that but those words so filled with love are something that I will cherish forever. The love and devotion she had for other people and for her grandkids was something special.
• I could listen to Grandma’s life stories for hours. She lived life to the fullest and she had such wisdom and touched the lives of so many.

McCall and I were able to fly out for a week to be a part of the funeral and spend some time with family. It was a good week and it was such a great few days of celebrating Grandma.

I went to Grandma's house on Monday with Mom and Charlotte. It was really weird to walk in her house and not have her there and not hear "Hi Buffy" or to get a hug. It felt very empty but as I walked around and took some pictures so many memories and moments flooded my mind. So many really fun times at this house that were filled with lots of love.

McCall's first time at Grandma's house- I'm sad that Grandma didn't get the chance to hold her in person but thank goodness for technology so that they got to meet.

The viewing the night before the funeral- it was really fun to visit with cousins and see family that I haven't seen in a while. 

After each of my other grandparent's viewing we all went to Artic Circle and per tradition we went after Grandma's viewing. It was fun to have everyone there. McCall was pretty fussy and I tried to keep her as happy as I could, then Amy took a turn so that I could eat, and then Karlton was the baby whisperer and as soon as he got her she fell right to sleep. 

The funeral was Tuesday morning- it was a beautiful day and the church was filled with family. She would have loved being part of this family reunion and I'm sure she was looking down with quite the smile. The tears did start pretty early for me. We had a family prayer before going into the chapel and Uncle Kevin gave it. It was very sweet and he teared up which I don't think I have ever seen Kevin cry so it was pretty touching.

The funeral service was wonderful. It was about 45 minutes long since Grandma said if it was over an hour she would haunt us. :) It was a sweet tribute to a sweet lady. The grandkids and great-grandkids all sang "I Often Go Walking" which is the same song that we sang at my Grandma Peterson's funeral. All flowers remind me of both of my grandmas and it's a good thing that the great-grandkids were up there singing since most of us girl cousins didn't sing much since we were all crying. 

Next up was time for the cemetery service- look at the big group of people who are pretty much all family. It is amazing to see generations together and see the influence of one amazing couple.

This was sweet to watch and they were laughing quite a bit which would have made Grandma so happy. She always said she didn't want us to be sad at her funeral and that she wanted it to be more like a graduation party.

McCall was constantly surrounded by a group which I loved to see. It is always so sweet to see the love other people have for your children and of course she is pretty cute so who wouldn't want to gather around her. :)

Her casket was gorgeous- the rooster on top was stunning and the flowers (that my cousin's daughter did!) were amazing!

The four kids

The four kids and their spouses

Some more family photos of just one branch from Grandma's tree. I wish the rest of my family could have been here. I missed them so much and I know they would have loved to attend.

Once we got back there was a gym full of people that enjoyed the luncheon together. It was nice to visit with cousins. It truly was such a beautiful day filled with lots of love for Grandma. We ended everything by going out and celebrating Grandma. There was a balloon for each grandkid to send off to heaven. It was a pretty cool way to end the day and fun to see the balloons floating upwards.

Then a lot of cousins went to Grandma's house to go through some of the things at her house and take want you want. It was such a wonderful day and this sweet baby did great!

Amy put this up on her wall and truly if everyone lived like Grandma this world would be a better place.

3 Months

3 Months with this sweet baby. She truly is the cutest little thing!

Here is what McCall is up to at 3 months:

• She loves to be held, facing out so that she can see the world.
• She knows when you sit down and will let you know that she wants you to stand up again. Nate and I get lots of steps in each day.
• We all live for her sweet smiles. Her whole face lights up and she gives big open mouth smiles.
• She likes to lay on the ground and wiggle and gives the biggest kicks when she is excited.
• She likes to play peek-a-boo with her blanket.
• She is a little more particular and can get pretty fussy especially when she is fighting sleep.
• She is a pretty alert baby and wants to observe the world around her. She loves to be outside and doesn't like to cuddle up against you with her face towards you. She always wants to be facing out.
• She still loves bath time and loves the water.
• She is still great at nursing though not that great at burping and still spits up a lot. Whenever we lay her on the ground, we always have a burp cloth under her.
• She is starting to not like her car seat too much but it depends on the day.
• She is my best sleeper which I am very grateful for.
• She is starting to move around a little more by kicking her legs against the ground or the couch and is starting to turn to her side more so I'm sure anytime soon she will start rolling.

This past month we have had a couple of times where McCall has slept through the night! It has been awesome that she is such a great sleeper. Her norm is to wake up once at night to eat. My other two didn't sleep through the night until after they were a year.

We love her sweet smiles!!!

She is such a tiny little girl whom we love so much! I love this little one so much and she is SO cute!