We'll Miss You Grandma Jones

So, I know it's a little late, but this past weekend I attended my first funeral. It was for my Great-Grandma Jones. She died on Monday, December 1st, at about 1:00 in the morning. It was sad, but at the same time very happy. She was the youngest of 11 children, and was she only one left in her family. We were happy that she got to go home to her Father in Heaven. She was, after all, almost 96 years old.

Anyhow, to make some more room in the van for my family, I rode with my aunt and uncle (Tammy and Tim) up to Utah. It was pretty fun, and I got to take lots of pictures of the scenery.

I do have to say that I love all the cacti, there were tons, but this was the closest I got to capturing any of them because we were driving.

Don't be fooled by the snow and green trees, this is still Arizona.

On EVERY single road trip we take, we always stop at Little America Hotel in Flagstaff to fill up on gass and use the restroom. It's almost like a tradition. You can't NOT go there.

Now once we got to the hotel (which was established by my Great Uncle Erv) our room was too small so they had to put us in the "suite": Room 200B.

It had two beds in the main room. (One for mom & dad, one for the brothers.)

And a little bathroom with another room off o the side. This room was for me and McKenna (my awesome cousin).

So, after the viewing, my mom, my aunt Tammy, and I sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and it was a beautiful arrangement. They also had all the Grand and Great-Grand Children come up and sing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". This was a little funny because just about everybody was either a Grand Child or a Great-Grand Child.

Of course, after the funeral was over, everybody whipped out their cameras and had to start taking pictures.

My Uncle Sterling and his grand daughter Jordyne.

From left to right is my cousin Courtney, her daughter Jordyne, her dad Sterling, her sister McKenna, and her other sister Brooklyn.

My Uncle Goobee (Dan), his wife Melissa, and their daughters Heidi (toddler) and Natalee (Baby).

My Uncle Scott, his wife Stacey, and their kids Cole and Gwendolyn.

This is my aunt Jone's head stone. She died when she was only 18 months old from meningitas.

Here's the cute part. Jordyne and Heidi couldn't keep away from it.

Before leaving we all gathered as a family in front of Grandma Jones' house for one last family picture. THis was a lot harder than I ever anticipated. Why? It was, after all, haunted. Well, yes, that has a bit of truth to it, but to me, this house is what Blanding was. I didn't want to leave it. I had a bit of an emotional attatchment you could say. After taking this picture, Kenna and I walked through Grandma's garden. I remember as a little girl walking through the rows of raspberries, and strawberries, and any other kind of berry you could think of, and picking cherries from the cherry tree, and helping Grandma saw of a little branch from the walnut tree, and Sydnee and Brooklyn tricking Kenna and I into eating raw rubarb... YUCK! I always thought of that garden as the secret garden, but it almost died with Grandma. Every bush was bare of leaves, not fruit (the fruit that was there was rotten and ready to fall) and it looked very gloomy. As we were leaving I put my hand on a branch and it snapped. The middle was green and I knew that this garden wasn't gone yet.

So, ya. I'm going to end on a high note and say that I just LOVE that wasy it looks when the clouds rain from far away?