Grandma Jo and Minnesota

My Gramma Jo (my mom's mom) passed away on July 13, 2011. She was an energetic, outspoken, funny, thoughtful lady and I will really miss her phone calls and her interest in me and my life. I am so happy we went to Florida 3 years ago to visit her and introduce our then baby Zach to her. Gramma Jo, we love you, remember you, and miss you already.

February 2008

4 generations! February 2008

The memorial was held in Minnesota where a lot of my Mom's family is. One neat thing about funerals is it brings family together. So much so that ALL 6 of my parent's kids were able to meet them there in Minnesota without spouses or kids!!! WHAT?! Not that we didn't want spouses there, but that is a VERY rare occurrence to have just the kids together. And only 2 little babies came, the ones I haven't met yet so I was so excited to meet and cuddle them.

The younger 3.
Cody, Me, and Katie.

 Cody doing what he does best. Being a pesky little brother. :) He just kept squishing me on every turn the car took and trying to take photos of it at the same time. We had to stitch these two together to get the real picture.

It's funny how getting together with your siblings makes you revert back to childhood. :) Yeah, we are all grown up now, but that doesn't mean that we can't still play and have fun!!

My mom and her sister Laurie.

Dad and Chris even joined in through the conversation mirror. :)

This is my Great Aunt Sam and her Dog Sampson. We all love Aunt Sam! She used to bring her big camper and come to California and make fudge with us, do headstands, show us the stars and the star maps and she always had a dog along with her. She is so great.

This dog was so snooty!!! He ONLY loves Aunt Sam and it was my privilege to even be touching him! He is such a prince. I was a bit intimidated.

My bros. Cody and Chris. The youngest and oldest of the fam.

Cody and I at Lake Harriet! It was BEAUTIFUL! Mom always told us about her Minnesota summers and the lake and the popcorn and ice cream there. We got to experience it all. It was a blast. I used to think beaches were the only way to go and thought lakes were pretty gross, but I think I am being converted. I really like a clean lake. No more swallowing salt water for me!

Cody being creepy at Lake Harriet

Super Chris being cool at Lake Harriet.

Handsome men.

And lovely ladies!! Me and my sister Katie.

My house. I wish. A beautiful lakefront mansion. I could deal with that.

As we walked around Lake Harriet we found this little door. People put letters inside of it and they come back answered by some little elf! It was cute!

Enjoying the music at the band stands. This was seriously SO quaint! I loved it! They were singing some of my favorite songs from the 1930s and 40s with a brass band accompaniment. People were even dancing up there. REAL dancing! I told Justin the ultimate gift for me would be weeks of couples dancing lessons so we could do the fun dances like they used to do. None of this solo crazy stuff. give me structure. Give me order. Give me choreography!! Tell me what to do!!!

The band stand. Isn't it beautiful! And the lake is right behind it. So picturesque.

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Mi madre y padre. They are so great for each other and still so in love. Good work guys! I love you and miss you!!!

Yes, mom is snapping  and dancing to the music. It was so fun! Us at Lake Harriet the first day...waiting for Angie and Carrie and the wee babes to arrive.

And they did!!! Here is Carrie with Malia!! She was such a dolly! So sweet and happy.

How could you love and pinch those cheeks! I am so glad I FINALLY got to meet her! After 8 months!

And this is pretty little Emery. :) She is 4 months old here and one of the most chill babies I have EVER met. Just always looking like this or smiling.

Angie and Emery he next day after the memorial service. My mom and her cousin gave the eulogy and my dad conducted the services. It was such a great way to celebrate and give thanks for Gramma Jo's life. Without her, I wouldn't be here or who I am! It was also so great to meet mom's side of the family and get to know them better. I grew up without any cousins or Aunts and Uncles close by. They all were in Minnesota or Ontario, Canada! Needless to say we didn't see them much. That is one reason it has been cool to be in Justin's family. Cousins EVERYWHERE! :) I hope my kids get that too. (they would if we lived in Cali or Utah right now!!! 21 cousins down there waiting to play... Just sayin'...)

These girls are going to grow up best friends! :) They live 5 minutes from each other. Luckies!

My mom with her 2 sisters Kim and Laurie. (both part of different sets of twins might I add!) Yes, my Gramma Jo had 2 sets of twins! Rick and Laurie and Kim and Kevin. I'M DOOMED!!! I really do wonder if it will happen again...

My mom with her cousins. It was fun to hear her stories of all of these guys while growing up.

Emery being as chill as ever! Kickin' back on Uncle Cody.

My whole family!
Mom, Cody, Me, Katie, Angie, Carrie, Chris, and Dad.

Me with Aunt Dot. She is Gramma Jo's older sister and the last of 4 siblings left. She was also there in Florida when we visited Gramma Jo in 2008, so it was fun to reconnect with her. What a strong, sweet beautiful lady.

Emery and Cody jamming. She's the piano singing girl. Whatever those are called. What a cutie.

My SEESTERS!!! Oh how I love and miss them. :) Carrie and Angie live in California and Katie is in Utah. I love them so much and love their friendship and phone calls and help...we all stayed in one hotel room. Angie and I stayed up until almost 3 AM talking!!! AH! But seriously, when else do we get the chance to be (almost) kidless and all hang out! NEVER! We decided we need to make it happen more often! I love them. We all get along great, no drama or anything (that I'm aware of...maybe they do talk behind my back, but as long as I don't know I'm good! :) Love you girls! It was fun!

Mama and the Girls. Do we look alike?

Mama and Da Boys. Do they look alike?



I LOVE THIS!! Gramma Jo gave this pillow to here sister Aunt Dot and it is SO Gramma Jo.
"I smile because you're my sister. I laugh because there's nothing you can do about it."
HA! I guess it works for me and Katie too!

Sweet little Emery helping me get even more baby hungry on our way down to the pool. She is so cute. And of course she smiled.

Malia was hilarious in the water.

That face!!

This isn't a straight on picture, but it was HILARIOUS!

I wish this was straight on so you could see how funny it was! I wonder what the babes were thinking??

My brother "Strong-hairy-man-with-many-arms."

How did I feel??? FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! A weekend of just being the kid again. It was awesome! Thanks to Justin and to Aunt Tammy, Jaclyn, Amber, and Annalee for helping to make it possible. It was so great to honor and remember Gramma Jo and to spend such quality time with my wonderful family.

Wicked farmers tan Chris.

Again...creepy Cody. :)

A sweet shot of Aunt Laurie and Emery in the hotel room.

West Edmonton Mall, meet Mall of America! HUGE!

We all had to get our church hats. After this picture I figured out I was wearing it backwards!! Whoops. What would people do if I really wore these to church? :)

We had to go see the American Girl store. I am the proud owner of Addy and Kirsten and an Asian Bitty Baby that I named Sheena Tachikara. :) Yes, I am aware her middle name is after a volleyball brand. :) My sister whom I idolized was playing volleyball at BYU Hawaii when I got the doll and there was an Asian girl on her team named Sheena. Thus the best name ever.

You can bring your doll to the store to get a spa treatment done on her, or just a new do. I think this picture should be used for the ads. :) It was so funny!! AND EXPENSIVE!

Good ol' Aunt Dot and Emery. We visited with cousins at her place later that night. It was so fun to get to know them all.

The last full day we had we went to Minnehaha Falls with some of mom's other cousins and rode bikes and had a picnic. A star war fan club convention was also going on there. Interesting...

Malia loved it!!!

A LOT!!! Crazy girl!

Emery took a little nap on Aunty Katie.

Malia posed by Uncle Chris

Instead of pedaling, mom got out and pushed the bike! It was a lot of work!

And of course I had to go spend some birthday money at TARGET!!!!! I love that place. I am realizing that often the anticipation is greater than the realization, but that really is something that I miss about the U.S. I hear they are coming up here? We'll see...

After target we finished off back at Lake Harriet to let Carrie and Angie in on the experience of the band stands, popcorn, and ice cream. They weren't there the first day. It was a beautiful night again with a string orchestra.  Mom even weaved some head bands for the babies. I just wondered where mine was!! :)

A TIRED me (remember the 3 A.M. talking...yeah, it catches up to me) enjoying my DELICIOUS STRAWBERRY BIRTHDAY ICE CREAM!!! They even thought of me enough to buy candles. Aw! I love family!

Man that was good. I LOVE strawberry ice cream and especially whatever that brand was. When I got home Justin drooled over this picture. :)

In front of the band stands...can't see it, but it's there.

The last tradition we had to experience was a White Castle hamburger. Mom ALWAYS talked about these and how she missed them. They were yummy.

The next day in the St. Paul airport I was walking down the corridor to go fill up my water bottle before the flight when I see this guy!!!

Darin Payne and his 2 kiddos!!! This is Justin's best friend from high school. They live in Tennessee right now and he was flying to Great Falls on the exact flight I was on. SO RANDOM!!! 

Even more random was that he and I were assigned seats adjacent to each other! There was an empty seat next to me and Luke really wanted to sit by my so he came over and showed me his awesome iPad and the creepy Zombie game he liked. :) So much for my kidless flight! Just kidding. I was rejuvenated enough to enjoy helping Darin out. He was sure glad to see me...they left Tennessee at 4 A.M. This was now 10 A.M. our time and his kids didn't sleep at all!