Impromptu Vacation

We made the long drive to Utah on Saturday, August 1st in order to attend the graveside service of my grandfather who passed away on July 31st. Most of the extended family was there for the service, and it was good to catch up with family and celebrate my grandpa's life. One of his greatest talents was painting and sketches. I get so many compliments on the sketches he has done of Matt and I when we got married and 3 different sketches of Caleb at various ages. We have two beautiful scenery paintings that he has done for us as well. Although I didn't know him as well as my older siblings (because we moved to Texas when I was 7), I know how much my mother admired and looked up to her father. His passing was expected and a relief as his quality of life had gone down significantly.

Because we were going to spend 4 days driving total for this impromtu occasion, we decided to make as much of a vacation out of it that we could. We visited a museum with the kids and went to an indoor pool with lots of kids' activities. The kids were also able to go to the zoo with my parents, grandma, aunt, and cousin while the kids' parents attended the Salt Lake temple. Thanks to my cousin, Ali, for being the photographer so we could have lots of pictures of the outing! Probably the most memorable activity that we did with my family was to go to a park and sit in a circle and talk about all our favorite memories of my grandpa. It ended with a rousing game of red rover, which the kids enjoyed immensely. Here are some pictures of the trip. Unfortunately Matt is only in one picture as he had to fly home early for work.