Grammy's Passing

Grammy in the heart of her home

The past two weekends we went to Cache Valley to spend time with my Dad's family.  We heard my Grammy's health was failing due to complications with pulmonary fibrosis, exacerbated by a fall earlier in the week.  When my cousin Marci called me and told me it was time I threw all the kids and some clothes in the car late Friday afternoon, picked up Jared from work and, as we were on our way to Logan, we received the news that my Grammy had passed away. Exactly 4 years and 1 week after my Grampy passed away.  I am so grateful the kids and I had taken a day trip last month to visit with her, take pictures, etc.  I felt like I had good closure, but still we pressed on to Logan to see my parents (who were 15 minutes out when they received the news after traveling from CA for 12 hours), Kelsey and other extended family.  It was so healing to be able to say goodbye to her before they took her body away and to spend the weekend surrounded by loved ones.  Jared even took the kids home Saturday night and let me stay one more day at Aunt Lori's to visit with family, read through Grammy's journals and spend some time reflecting on Grammy's life, especially the last week with cousins, aunts and uncles.  It was especially fun to see how my kids made instant friends with my cousin's kids.  Especially Lillian and Brynli (marci's daughter) hit it off from the first moment.

Visiting Grammy last month

Me with my Dad over the funeral weekend

The Cabin (aka Grammy's House)

During a small family gathering the first weekend

Lillian and her 2nd cousin Brynli

I wrote this the Monday I returned from Logan: I am feeling emotional as I remember my Grammy who passed away on Friday. I am so grateful for a healing weekend at her cabin surrounded by loved ones and looking forward to seeing all 28 cousins together at the funeral next weekend. My Grammy was one of my biggest cheerleaders, a leader among women, my home away from home during college, always had time to talk with me, made her home feel like a haven, a spiritual giant, always had a home-cooked meal and homemade bread waiting, the first to introduce me to Aggie Ice cream, a talented seamstress,and she unconditionally loved all she met. I can only hope to someday be at least half the woman she was. I am so glad she was able to pass in her home surrounded by family and I am sure she is now having a wonderful reunion with grampy and all her loved ones as we mourn our loss. ‪#‎familiesareforever‬

All 28 cousins lining up in age order to re-enact a photo our parents made us take 25 years ago

The following weekend we were able to host Emily and Lara for a night or two before they headed up to Logan.  Kelsey, the kids and I took Emily to the Tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point.  It was gorgeous!!  Such a beautiful afternoon on top of which we found a $10 bill on the ground and after asking around to find out the owner, decided we better treat ourselves to some italian ice and ice cream :)  Lucky since none of us adults brought our wallets in!  We picked Lara up at the airport late Thursday night and all us sisters visited Kelsey at work the next day. What a rare opportunity to be all together.  The kids had a blast with their aunties in town buying the salt water taffy and visiting them at school!

Starting out at the Tulip Festival

Jocelyn and Lillian with their aunties

Kids on the way to the waterfall where we spotted an owl

Friday night we headed up to Logan again and stayed with my cousin Kimi to attend the viewing, funeral and burial for Grammy.  As we entered the viewing I saw this display which made me instantly tear up.  Grammy wrote her own obituary (which my cousin Therese touched up) and this was a line she had in her self-written obituary.  We all knew she truly meant it and treated us as such.  Although it was emotional, I was so grateful to be able to take part in the celebration of Grammy's life.  My talented cousins sang, played violins and spoke along with the aunts and uncles.  After the luncheon all us cousins took pictures to re-enact age order pictures our parents took of us 25 years ago!! We followed it up that evening with a hilarious and happenin' cousin party (kids with babysitters) while the geriatric party stayed at Grammy's cabin.  What a treasure to have such amazing, fun people to be related to!!  My cousin Cortney put together all the media like Grammy's journals, the funeral video made by my cousin's daughter Kayla, and a video we had all submitted to grammy last Thanksgiving.  It has been difficult but really great to browse through all of the pictures, videos and journals. What a treat to have my whole family all together for a quick weekend.  Of course we could have spent a week visiting and catching up and enjoying each other's company but at least we had a few days!

The 6 Anderson siblings

The 28 grandkids

The next generation of 6 Anderson Siblings

Kid Update

We have all enjoyed living near family.  We basically have not made any effort to make other friends because we know this is temporary housing and we have such a plentiful supply of family so what is the point?!  We have been doing Sunday dinner on rotation with Jared's parents and sisters which is fun while we are living close.  We have also joined in their babysitting date night swap.

Here are some pictures of us hosting Pi (3.14) day for the Sunday Dinners.  I made the main dish pies and the girls and Jared made the dessert pies. Yum!  This upcoming weekend we will be hosting a Cinco de Mayo feast.

Pi Day Dinner

 Another bonus of living at Grandma's and Grandpa's house is the cool retro toys my kids have been using while ours are in storage.  These Omagles are AWESOME and have provided hours and hours of play for my kids.  One weekend Jared helps them build a stage for performances and puppet shows, the next they build a go-kart.  The next weekend they've set up hospital beds, wheelchairs and crutches for a hospital.  You can see where Jared and his brothers acquired their building skills!

Jocelyn had the opportunity to go on a field trip with her 3rd grade class to the Museum of Natural Curiosity.  I, unfortunately, was stuck in bed with Strep throat, but she was able to join her cousin's group and it sounded like they had a blast.  Jocelyn is still quite the fashionista and comes up with cute outfits and creative clothing that put me to shame.  This week she and Lillian began a gymnastics class and spring soccer.  Both of them are only 6 weeks long and pretty low key but I think it will be fun for them to get more involved since we have been taking a break from piano and other activities due to the move.  Luckily, her anxiety hasn't surfaced since the move, but her attitude and sass can definitely surface and impact all of us more than I appreciate.  Let's just say that while she can sure be a leader and force for good, she is not naturally a morning person.

Cutie girl before school one day

Jocelyn at gymnastics class

Jocelyn and Ella on their field trip

Jocelyn with cousin Stella

 Lillian is so excited to have been chosen as "Student of the Week" for next week in her school class.  We need to put together a poster, treats and show and tell items.  She also found her calling in life as we attended Stella and Luca's reptile birthday party and Lillian would not take her hands off the tortoise.  She has also been growing her plant that she made in school.  She has named him Bob and he has only needed a haircut 3 times!!  Between soccer and gymnastics she will keep busy through the end of school!

Lillian with her pet plant

Cousin fun during date night swap

Lillian with the beloved tortoise

Mt. Timpanogos Temple

Lillian at Gymnastics class

 Of course during the week I had strep throat Jonas also had a field trip to the local aquarium.  It sounded like he had a blast with his class. Thank goodness we had my MIL and SILs to help take care of my kiddos that week!  They were amazing.  Also for a school project Jonas has been putting together a farm poster for their unit this month.  Jonas is super excited to begin soccer this week.  He will be on a team with all of his boy cousins that are also in his preschool class.  We are all hoping they understand it is a soccer game, not a wrestling match, as that is often the result of them attending preschool together.  

Jonas at his preschool fieldtrip

Jonas with his Farm poster for preschool

Jonas playing legos with the boy cousins

 Jonas has taken up "improving the truth" (lying) to me and we are working on that.  He strategically told me how all the cousins except him were put on timeout at preschool.  I figured the likelihood of that was slim to none so we talked about how it was more important that he told me the truth than getting in trouble at school.  He eventually told me the truth for which I thanked him, and I am just trying to figure out the most effective way of calling him out on the lying all while encouraging when he tells me the truth...

Jonas and his boy cousins hanging out

Emma is at a fun stage.  She can talk very clearly but sometimes confuses terms and doesn't grasp reality.  For instance, she will tell me "I am very hungry about cereal" or "I am very hungry about candy."  She knows full well that if she just told me she was hungry I would offer her something sensible like carrots, oranges or yogurt.  She tries to specify so she doesn't get stuck with a healthy snack but it cracks me up every time.

Emma "hungry about" chocolate

  She still really misses her girlfriends from Morgan Hill and thought she was really onto something a few weeks ago when she told me repeatedly day after day "Mom!! I have a great idea! What if we just got some pixie dust? Then we could fly to visit Janie and Naomi!"  I told her I wished it was that simple.  But I did not want to break her little heart or stunt the creativity.  This little sassafrass is also doing awesome at taking on the silverware chore.  It works out best when she and Jonas work on it together, but she is also willing to take it on single-handed! 

Emma doing her silverware chore

Playing in the sand box at grandma's house

 

Emma hanging out with cousins Beckett and Finnley

 I forget if I already wrote about this story but recently we went out to dinner and on the table was a napkin with a knife and fork wrapped inside.  As we were helping the older kids get settled in and calmed down, Emma got to unwrapping the little silverware packet and was absolutely thrilled to see the contents.  In an ecstatic, giddy voice, she stood up holding the knife above her head and proclaimed "I got a knife, I totally got a knife!" We couldn't do anything but crack up!

Emma has also really loved having more Jonas time since he only goes to preschool a few hours every week instead of all day.  They get along so well playing house, building trains or boats out of laundry baskets and blankets, or just hanging out.  She started claiming she was going to marry Jonas.  Of course, the older girls put a stop to that really quick and turned her on to the idea of marrying Jonas's good friend Robbie from CA. 

House Hunting, Cars, Pets and Sickness

 We had known for several months that our Tahoe was on its last leg and that we were done dumping money into repairs at the mechanic's.  It had served us well and for a long time, but especially since the move to Utah (during which the Tahoe had pulled a trailer) on top of which it was shocked with cold weather in its old age, it was not doing very well.  With our poor car leaking coolant everywhere, needing conditioners in the oil and the fuel to even start in the morning and giving me nightmares of being stranded on the freeway with four kids, we headed out on a search for a new family car.  We knew we wanted something that could tow, seat at least 8, and with 4 wheel drive for yours truly who does not have experience driving in the snow.  It was certainly not a rash decision as we test drove several cars in CA, searched online in both states and tried to do our homework, but it went pretty fast once we started shopping.  We happened upon a used dealership selling strictly large SUVs and vans.  Just what we needed! They were no nonsense and within a few hours we had put a deposit down on a 9 passenger Yukon XL with 50,000 miles.  My sister in law told us "you don't seem very excited" but I guess Jared and I are not really fond of parting with that much money and I was trying to reconcile my feelings of relief that my car was no longer a ticking time bomb!  I am getting more excited about it now.  I am certainly excited about the cargo space- I can fit groceries in the back of the car, a stroller, projects, you name it!!

 Last month the girls had a family roller skating night for their school.  They allowed razor scooters and we rented a nifty balance walker which made it a lot simpler helping four kiddos.  We had a ton of fun!  Jared was even able to join us and to top it off, we ran into some of our friends from Morgan Hill who had moved to Utah only a couple months before us.  I babysat Eva and Quinn off and on for several years to trade for art classes and it was such a blast to spontaneously run into them!!  What a happy reunion.  We topped off the night by getting shakes, onion rings and fries at the Purple Turtle-Jared's high school fast food job.  His old boss was there and they had a chance to catch up on the last 17 years!

The Okusi Girls!!

Roller Skating Fun

Roller Skating Rink

Treats at Purple Turtle

 On top of adjusting to our new schedule, we have been house hunting pretty regularly.  My aunt Heidi happens to be a realtor and lives in Draper, where we decided to focus our house search.  She has been such a pleasure to work with and is very knowledgeable regarding neighborhoods, etc.  It has also been fun for Jared and the kids to get to know her better.  We generally focused our efforts and time into narrowing down interests on the internet MLS listings, walking through our favorite potential houses (sometimes just Jared and I, sometimes just the kids and I) and we decided to put an offer on a house that did not pan out.  The sellers did not want to come down in price as much as we wanted!  We also put an offer on this house in Draper-see pictures below which we are excited about.  The sellers came down in price so that, in combination with our down payment, we can have a mortgage that is literally half of what we had in CA.  The price for the square footage on this house was a deal, and although it was built in the 90s it has been updated, it is around the corner from the elementary school and down the street from great trails and the community pool.  We are in contract and scheduled to close on May 10th.

The update on our chicks is that they are now nearly chickens!  They are larger and smellier and eat a whole lot more.  I suppose I would liken them to a gangly awkward early teen stage and the kids are losing interest...We are also fostering an additional 4 chickens on top of our own 6 for a grand total of 10 chickens!!  We received a call from Jared's brother, Jeff, one weekend asking us if we would be around at midnight that night.  Apparently Jeff's roommates thought it would be fun to buy some baby chicks and try to care for them in a boys college apartment.  It was not as fun as it sounded and, as it turns out, it was a bit overwhelming and smelly!  He was sending the chicks down in a box with a friend who was going to be headed our direction and we immediately took over the care of Donatella, Michaelangela, Raphaela and Leonarda so we can fatten them up for Jeff to butcher this summer.  I told my kids not to get too attached and we told Jeff he and his roommates should focus on the other kind of "chicks" instead!! 

Since we moved to Utah it seems that one or more of us have been sick in one way, shape, or form almost constantly!  I did not realize I was signing up to homeschool- as it seems that at least one (school age) child has been with me at least a few days a week every week. And when it is not them, it has been me or Emma!  We have had everything from colds and headaches to respiratory issues to stomach flu and Strep throat.  Poor Lillian probably took the brunt of it, but even poor little Emma had a week-long virus that made her fever, listless and decreased appetite.  I had a nasty case of strep that made it so I could not talk or swallow for days!  I am hoping this is just our immune systems adjusting to the new environment and germs.  Hopefully we will pay the price then return to our usual selves!  But, of course, we will probably adjust in time to move to our real home and have to go through another round of sickness :(  I suppose it makes us thankful for our usual health.