Well, a big water pipe burst in the street near our church so we only had Sacrament meeting today since the city shut off the water.  Consequently, we finally have time for us all to write in our journals.  :)

I spent most of the week in Utah and had a wonderful time visiting with family and cousins.  David and I were flying out together and our flight was delayed by 4 1/2 hours, but luckily we were able to re-book on a different flight that left later and still got in at the same time.  I rented a car in Salt Lake; worth every penny; it was nice to have freedom to go where I wanted when I wanted.  David and I stayed at Cheryl's and it was nice to just talk and hang out on Tuesday morning.  Later we went over to Grandma's to have a birthday barbeque for Dad.  It was fun to hang out with everyone and eat the good food.  Afterwards, Mom and I went to go practice for the musical number for the funeral the next day.  I played the violin with three of my cousins, Shannon, Laura, and Tenille, while Jake sang "O My Father."  For only one practice I thought it went well and brought the Spirit.

The next morning, we woke up early and went to the group Family Prayer.  It was difficult to be sad because I was so excited to see and visit with so many of my cousins.  The funeral went well.  Even though the last speaker was super long, I was glad because it gave me a chance to (tune him out... oops) and reflect on my own feelings about Grandpa.  I cried for about half the talk, but not because of anything the speaker was saying... I just missed my Grandpa.  I was wishing I had brought Cameron since he was really close to Grandpa, but it was too late and Grandpa would have been glad he was at Scout Camp.  Then we played our musical number and afterwards went in for the family luncheon.  It was so nice to talk to so many cousins and just catch up on things.  I stayed for quite a while.

After, David and I drove up to Salt Lake for the graveside service.  It was short and sweet, some tears, and a lot of family pictures and talking again.  I feel like Grandma never had a chance to mourn because she was so busy entertaining this week.  I hope she gets the chance to grieve but also feel comforted. 

After the funeral, I went and saw Linda's new house.  Then we all ate at Brick Oven.  :)  We talked and then went back to Linda's.  Then we went to Katie Tengelsen's home to play games with some of our cousins.  We played a fun game called Psychiatrist.  Then Janet, Linda, Cheryl, and I went to see Divergent... again, lol. 

I slept in the next morning and then packed up my stuff and headed to Grandma's for the morning.  I hung out with family members there for several hours and then went to Linda's for a little bit to say goodbye to my sisters.  Then I headed to Layton and stayed with my good friend Selena.  We talked until 1:30am and had a great time talking and catching up.  We talked a lot about women's roles in the church and other spiritual insights.  She had the thought that women were primarily responsible for bring Heavenly Father's children to Earth and men were primarily responsible for making sure we returned back to Heavenly Father.  We talked about the different Earthly responsibilities and natures that mirrored those two tasks and she said maybe even the two trees in the garden of Eden mirrored those two different tasks.  When I came home and told Mike about our discussions, he said it made him wonder if perhaps women didn't have a large role in the pre-mortal life too with preparing us to be sent to Earth from that side as well.  I had never thought about what preparations might be needed before hand and women's role in that but it was an interesting thought.

I had to wake up at 3:30am (only 2 hours of sleep!) to return my rental car and catch my flight.  I set two different alarms because I knew I'd be really tired and I slept through both alarms for about 10 minutes.  I am a super light sleeper so I was surprised, but I did have ear plugs in so I'm sure they were muted somewhat.  I slept the first leg of the plane ride and had my own row.  Then I had a 4 hour lay-over in San Francisco and put in my ear plugs and slept for 3 more hours.  Mike picked me up at the airport and it was good to see him.  The kids had missed me, especially Errolyn who was afraid I would die in a plane crash and called me several times a day to say she loved me.  (I think she loves me more when I'm gone than when I'm here, lol.) 

We went home for a short time and then drove to a fireworks show.  The kids had a fun time playing until it started raining and then there was mass panic to get everyone to the car.  We waited the rain out and the fireworks were really great.  When we got home, Cameron was back from Scout Camp and glad to be home too.

Yesterday was filled with errands and catching up on life.  Carol and George came over for a few hours and played games with us and the kids.  Mike and I also bought a new dishwasher and Mike installed it last night.  It works SO much better and looks much nicer too which is always a bonus.  The kids are playing games right now and Emma is begging me to write in her journal so we shall see what she says.  :)