Ohio Trip for Grammy's Funeral

Last week we made a trip to Conesville, OH for Rob's great-grandma's (Grammy, Geneva Elnora Slaughter) funeral. Despite the sad occasion for gathering, we had a really great trip. Rob's Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam, his mom and all her sisters, and his cousins Andrew and Annie were able to fly out for the funeral. It was so nice to be with the family again and made us feel like we haven't really moved so far from Utah :)Grammy's funeral service was really nice. It was fun to hear remembrances of what a wonderful woman she was. I wish I would have been able to meet her in person. She was remembered as such a patient, loving, caring, God-fearing woman who was also a lot of fun.

The hearse driving onto the highway, which has been blocked off by the saluting highway patrolman.

The neatest thing was the procession to the graveside. We each had a flag on the top of our cars that designated our involvement in the procession. We had a highway patrol escort to escort us through town to the highway. Traffic was pretty much shut down for us as we drove through red lights and had the highway blocked until we were all on the road. Most cars going the other direction pulled over to the side of the road as we passed and all police or highway patrol officers that we passed stopped and saluted us. It was touching to see so many people showing such great respect for the dead.

At the gravesite there was a dove released in Grammy's memory.

Grammy's living children at the graveside
Aunt Bev, Aunt Polly, Uncle Ken, Uncle June (Howard), Grandma Junetta Gwilliam, Aunt Mart (Martha)

Gravestone at the Frazeysberg Cemetery

Grammy's casket

Aunt Kimmy, Aunt Leslie, Grandma, Grace, Annette, Aunt Michelle

Gracie with her grandma and great-grandma and a rose from Grammy's casket

Hands down, the best part of the trip for Grace was getting to spend time with her Grandma Annette. She was so mad if ever Annette was in another car and not sitting right next to her.

The rolling hills of this part of Ohio were incredibly beautiful. It was fun just to drive around and admire Middle America.

The Longaberger Basket Company headquarters. Wouldn't it make you smile to go to work in a gigantic picnic basket every day?

On Friday, we enjoyed the morning driving through Amish country and admiring the beautiful scenery.
We passed many a horse-drawn buggy. Grace loved seeing so many horses. Every time we passed one she would point it out and tell us repeatedly that she had just seen a "horse!"

The second-best thing (after Grandma) was the petting zoo in Amish country. Grace had so much fun feeding the animals out of her hand. She just smiled from ear to ear and giggled the whole time.

That is, until tragedy struck...

This harmless looking little cow was really enjoying the food pellets Grace was feeding him. So much so, that he thought that Gracers looked pretty tasty too and tried to lick/eat her hair.

She has a true "cow lick" now :) Can you see her wet and mangled bangs? But she was a trooper and got over it quickly.

She also got to ride on a pony. She was so great. She rode that pony all by herself around, and around, and around. Rob walked around with her the first time and she did it all by herself the rest of the time. She loved it!

These little guys were hilarious. Man am I glad that (a) I am not a pig and (b) am not having twins. I felt like I could totally relate to this little mama!

We had a great time in Amish country!

While we were in Ohio, Aunt Polly (Grandma Junetta's sister) graciously offered to let us stay with her. Grace loved her and her fun house.

The goose that Grace loved on Aunt Polly's porch. I didn't get a picture of it, but inside Aunt Polly has a ceramic life-sized kitty cat that Grace gave a million kisses to during our 2 night stay.

She also loved her sweet and fun Aunt Polly

Even though the trip was short, it was so fun to get to see and meet family and to see new places. We were so blessed to be able to go. Thanks everyone for making us feel so welcome!

Neighborhood Watch

Like any good God-fearing, family-protecting neighborhood, ours welcomes you with nice signs letting you know not to mess around because we have a neighborhood watch. But, I would venture to say that not all neighborhoods have Neighborhood Watch incarnate. She lives next door and apparently does nothing besides drive around watching. She wears a hat and sunglasses so it's really hard to see how old she is. Throughout the day she'll get in her car and be gone for a few minutes and then come slowly driving home and park her car in her driveway (sometimes she's yelling like crazy when she gets out of the car, sometimes not) and then do it again a few hours later. So strange.

When we were moving in she literally stopped her car in the middle of the road at the end of our driveway to sit and stare at us getting all our stuff out of the cubes and into the house. When I smiled and waved, she just sat there staring at me...so strange. Am I missing some sort of twisted Southern custom or something?

We were telling the story of Neighborhood Watch to another family in the neighborhood who stopped by to say hi, and after some note-comparing, we figured she was the very same lady who every once in a while drives around the neighborhood honking for no reason. Awesome. She also stops in front of this family's house sometimes and watches them! Does she hate kids? Does she hate Utahns? Maybe we should get our license plates changed sooner rather than later... Sorry no pictures, although maybe I shouldn't worry about being a weird neighbor? Anyway, welcome to the neighborhood, eh?

I'm Drowning.

Coming from dry-as-a bone Utah to you-can-see-the-air-it's-so-thick Tennessee has been quite the experience. Grace and I took a late flight that got delayed even more so when we arrived in Tennessee at 1:30 am, I was thinking we'd need to put on our little jackets, right? Middle of the night? Wrong!! It was still really warm and I could see and chew the air (almost!). So I was thinking that it would be about the same during the day...wow, wrong again! It gets substantially warmer in the sunshine (apparently) and no less wet. I mostly just hope I don't drown every time I go outside. (I've been promised you get used to it, but I'm not so sure...)


This morning it's rainy and the windows of our house are all fogged up! How crazy is that?! But I'm loving getting a little rain. Really, the only difference between rain or not is that it's cooler when it's raining. No less muggy :)

I'm just really glad that we've visited in the Fall and Spring and it's not muggy then, so there is some hope for being comfortable again!

Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little. It's not so bad, but it is a huge difference between this and what we're used to. Grace only cries "hot! Hot! Hot!" for a few minutes every time we get in the car! :)

No Kids Allowed!

This is the day I've been waiting for. While officially dubbed the "office" or "study" this room is the no-kids-allowed craft room! All thanks to this little guy on the doorknob:

I'm a Big Girl Now!

Gracie has done a great job with the big changes that have happened over the past few weeks and all the sleep deprivation she's experienced. Probably the biggest and most exciting change for her has been getting to sleep in a big girl bed. When we got here we put her crib back together as a toddler bed and she is loving sleeping in it and doing a great job staying put (though that could be the threat of the pack and play set up for her to sleep in if she doesn't stay in bed!). Here's a picture of her in her bed last night. It doesn't look like it's dark, but it is, just imagine :)

Next step will be making the black-out curtains for her room so we can take the nasty trash bags off the windows.

Note: My plan is to document our house and adventures in smaller installments, so stay tuned!