A Noble and Great One

My Grandpa Gene passed away on Fathers Day. It was strange because I had seen him exactly two weeks earlier. He had been asking to go home and now he is there with his wife and family. I was determined to go to the funeral even though Jesús couldn't go. I decided that I would drive myself and the kids to Utah on my own. My mom used to do it every summer with 4 kids so I figured I could do it too. I am a very scared driver though so this was a very nerve racking thing to prepare fore. I left June 23 at 5pm after Patricks swim lesson and drove to St. George. I had only two problems. One was in Vegas, where I was extremely scared to drive any way, where I was almost in a huge accident due to someone going 30 mph in the fast lane and the truck coming up behind him not noticing and rear ending him and shoving him right into me. The other problem was at 10:15 when both kids were asleep and I needed to go to the bathroom. I had to pull over at a gas station and get both kids out of the car and take them in with me. It actually ended up going rather smoothly(them waking up and going back to sleep after getting back in the car) so I was glad I stopped. I made it the rest of the way to St. George and we spent the night. We drove safely the rest of the way with out stopping the next day.

The viewing was that night. Ann and Sarah came and it was so good to see them. They were also at my Grandma's funeral 6 months ago.

Patrick was so happy to see Max he could hardly contain himself

And I got to snuggle on little Sara Marie

I decided that Grandpa's flag should be at half mast. It seemed right.

The next morning was the funeral which was so beautiful. Afterwards we drove to Orem Cemetery for the graveside. The American Legion was there to salute Grandpa's casket. It was such an amazing experience. They even played Taps.

They presented the flag to my Uncle Doug

These are the Matt Ortons, my cousin Sam had just got off his mission a few days before.

Sar and I

We took a family picture before Dad had to head home

We went back to the church for lunch and Patrick didn't even want to sit with us, he wanted to sit with Max. I did take a picture of the whole Matt Orton family plus Patrick but it didn't come out. Boo. I did get this picture of him sitting by himself eating alone after they were done.

After the funeral we met up with our cousins to see Cars 2. Afterwards we headed to the Matt Ortons house so they could take us up American Fork canyon. Here are the Matt Ortons minus Sam, and the Randalls

Once we got up to the camp fire, we found all the Standifirds there. Patrick was on the go the moment we got there, mostly begging to play with Max.

Here's my cousin Tyler and his cute wife Ashley being twinsies. We actually saw them walking when we pulled in and I didn't know it was them and I laughed that they were dressed the same, then they turned around and....oops. Its ok, I think they like me still.

Sara, Ben and Mom went to get the stuff for smores and Sara grabbed Yoohoos. Patrick really liked them.

We roasted hot dogs and s'mores on the fire

Patrick acquired a nickname on this trip from my cousin Brandon, unfortunately Patty Wack might stick.

Here are the all of the cousins that came that night, a good looking bunch right?

It was pretty chilly when the sun went down but we sat around the fire to keep warm. Elena was perfectly happy sitting with Sara until I wanted to take a picture.

And then she went and cuddled with McKay

Patrick and Caleb put on a little show for us

Then Patrick passed out chips

The next day was Sunday so we attended Matt and Ravoe's ward to listen to Sam speak. Then we headed over to Patty's house for a yummy lunch

And on way back from Patty's you drive by the Timpanogos Temple so we stopped by to take some pictures

We went back to Grandpas house and packed the car and headed to St. George where we spent the night and we headed home the next morning so we could be back in time for Patricks swimming lesson. We were only 5 minutes late.