Road Trip!

On Christmas Day, we got a phone call from my dad's sister telling us that my grandpa had died. It was sad to hear that he had passed, but I'm so glad that he's back with his dear Roberta. My dad said that my grandma had already spent three Christmas' without him and it was about time that he spend one with her. At least she was kind enough to let him stick around long enough to spend a little Christmas with his family here as well. :] My dad visited my grandpa earlier this fall. While he was there, my grandpa asked him to give the eulogy at his funeral. My dad joked with my grandpa that it was just a cheap way of making sure we attended his funeral. Haha. It was a quick, yet long four days of driving. I was so glad when we finally arrived in California. Given the circumstances, it was still great to be able to see family that I don't get to see very often. The funeral service was very nice. As we walked in, there was a man that stopped my dad and said, "Are you Gary's son? You look just like him." My dad replied, "Yes I am." As we continued to walk into the building, my dad turned to us and said, "I certainly hope I don't look like my dad. He's dead." Oh Dad. Haha. My dad did a really good job with the eulogy. Something he said at the end really touched me. I don't remember his exact words, but he was talking about my grandparents' reunion in heaven. My grandma was very ill throughout her entire life. My talked about how joyous it must have been for my grandpa to see my grandma running up to him, throwing her arms around his neck and welcoming him to heaven. He also talked about how excited my grandpa must've been to finally be able to serve a mission. Because of my grandpa's service in the army and my grandma's poor health, my grandpa never had the opportunity to serve a mission. My dad talked about the huge amount of work that would be waiting for him at the gates and how pleased and willing he would be to serve. The ward choir sang, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and we sang, "How Great Thou Art" because those are his favorite hymns. Ironically, they are two of my favorite hymns as well. The choir did an outstanding job. I'm sure my grandpa was very pleased. When we were at the burial site, my aunt thought it would be very appropriate to play a recording of "Nessendorma" (I have no idea if I spelled that right) because it was his favorite opera. It was pretty hilarious though because it kept skipping and going back and doing all of these other weird things. After several attempts to get it to work, my dad said, "It's okay. That guy is dead anyway. Dad can just go find him and hear it live." Haha. Oh, Dad.

This is a picture of Alec wearing my sunglasses while we were driving through Wyoming. Doesn't he just look so sexy? Answer: "YES" because those are my sunglasses. :]