Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Speed Demon Andrew and a cookie

So I get this letter today for Andrew from the DMV.  He told me to open it. 




He has a few tickets.  One from the way home after Grandpa's funeral.  I suspect the Police are on to the students speeding in Cedar City.  He called and has an appt for next Monday.  His parents are unable to come to the meeting since I live THREE hours away. He will have to man up and go alone to the hearing.  Can't wait to see what happens to his car insurance.

On another note, we have this new cookie store in Bountiful called Crumbl.  I'm sure it is another fad like the soda stores like swigs and fizz.  However, they have these huge cookies and are served warm.  They have specialty cookies occasionally and today was the Nutella filled cookie. 

I got the box of cookies for my leak fixing friend, Taco.  And this one for me.  I took one bite and left.  I came back later and it was GONE.  Thats not how it works.  They are like 3.50!
Better go tomorrow too!  I don't know how long this cookie will be the cookie on special!




Utah's Hogle Zoo

Brooke has been working at Utahs Hogle Zoo for the past few .  You have to say that when you take people's tickets..The zoo has been open for the evening on all Mondays in July.  YA!  The zoo usually closes at 6:00 so is just HOT.  So, we have been to the zoo 4 of the 5 Monday nights.  Plus the Price is right for Zoo relatives.

So, the Last Monday, Brooke's friend who works in security met us there.  He was off, but had arranged for us to feed a giraffe with the zoo keeper.  WHAT?  So, we got to feed a giraffe over in the VIP feeding area and get a tour of the Giraffe Barn.

This is Grandma drinking out of this Lion drinking fountain.  We had to get this because we have a picture of Mark drinking out of it as a kid.   I can't find it but will when I find it.  That is Brooke in the background sitting in the wheelchair and Jack behind her






This was the Giraffe feeding.  The guy next to Brooke is Ty, the one that planned the feeding for us.


Here is Brooke and Ty feeding the Giraffe


This Jack feeding.  He was totally scared.  Like super scared  But he manned up and did it.  He was surprised at the long tongue and its color I think was purple. He thought it would bite his arm off...Luckily he survived.  
















Brooke and Ty and Ally, the Zoo Keeper that helped us feed the giraffe.  She was super cute and Brooke wants to be just like her! 



We looked around at other animals, but I didn't get any other photos  Fun night and beautiful weather.  It is fun to see the Zoo in the evening.  

Friday, July 27, 2018

Viewing Mark L Lewis

We did have a viewing the night before the funeral at the mortuary.  He looked good...I guess we can say that?  does anyone really?  The viewing was fabulous.  I saw tons of people and if I didn't want to say anything I could avoid them...I have been gone from home for so long that I could just conveniently walk away or talk to someone else. Such an expert at that.




These are the flowers that Marlena got I think.





The display table Paula put together. She does such nice work.


My nephew Luke.  The only pic I got.  Jack had my phone.  He was so proud of that suit




Funeral and more

The funeral was actually a very nice event.  I had to speak which I am sure was a highlight...
We had the lunch, then we left for Spanish Fork for the Interment...whatever it is called.

I got to ride with Stephen, Susan, and Jesse.  They are my cousins. It actually was the highlight of my day.  We stopped and got a drink and chatted and laughed the whole way down.  So glad I went with them.  The cemetary was fabulous.  The military was there for a Taps thing and that was nice.  It was super hot! 


This is probably my favorite pic of the funeral.  That is my brother in the front on the other side.  This side was Hayden, his son, then my three boys in the white shirts. I am surprised they didn't fall down because they had to step over tombstones to get him to the plot.  Mark said that when he had to carry Melanie over there, he about fell in the hole because it was soo heavy.


After the funeral, we went to Barry's which is a drive in.  We sat around and talked for a long time. Food good, company better.  We were with Stephen's family mostly and they were the best.

We drove home by way of Lehi and Taco Amigo which according to Mark had really great strawberry shakes and we needed to try them.  They didn't disappoint. I  have no pics of these events...

As I look back on the day it really was a 10.  Which is weird.  But there were so many people that I knew and love that showed up.  The luncheon was fun to visit with people and the cemetary was a highlight with people I love too!  He would have been proud although he would have wanted to have us go out to dinner and laugh about him and tell jokes.  We told lots of jokes however on the way.

This is what McKenna posted and it really is beautiful.  



My friend Jen sent these flowers.  So nice.




My friend Karen who I work with gave me these chocolates.  She says chocolates always help grief.

And my friend Natalie from school gave me this book.  So nice.  I haven't read it yet.


Hard to believe that he is really gone.  I have expected him to pass long before now but weird to finally have it happen.  So nice to have such good memories.  

July 9, 1918

July 9, 2018 is the day my dad died.  He has been struggling for a while (obviously).  He has slowly gotten slower and older and sicker.  He was not very mobile and he was losing color.  He has been on Hospice for two months.  When hospice came to assess, they said he had about two months and that was on May 15.  He died almost 2 months later.  6 days short.  Very good estimate.

He had a hospital bed delivered to the house on July 7.  I didn't think it was super necessary but we did it and moved out his King size bed.   Saturday he didn't want to get out of bed.  Saturday night we started him on Morphene and anti anxiety medication.  McCall was over there...I was texting her all night...She texted me the status and I went over at 4:00 am Sunday morning.  We kept him on a morphene schedule every two hours.  The Nurse came and said he was saturating around 50 I think.  She came back at 9 and said he had gone down hill since she was there a few hours ago.  She said Mark needed to come before 5:00 as originally planned.  She said she thought today was the day.  Wow.  That is a hard one.  It is one thing to know someone is going to die and another to know they are dying today.

We called Mark and he came and so did some of the grand children.  It was super hard to watch everyone say good bye to him.  I told him that the nurse said he was leaving today so he better make that happen.  He needed to go to the light and go to find his Mother, Father, Sister June, and his daughters Melanie and Kathleen.  We would all be fine and we would take care of Gma.

A few people from the ward came, the Home teacher only because we had to tell him they didn't want the sacrament that day...

Also, Mr. Rodriguez came over with a ham and rolls and potato salad from Costco because he saw all the cars and thought something might be going on.  So nice.

My family, Andrew (who was in town from school because of a mission farewell for his friend) and Nick came over.  Jack decided he didn't want to come. Abi was teaching Primary and had to play the Organ at church.

He had the breath of Death and this death rattle in his lungs..His legs were getting cold and his breathing was labored...morphene was continued.  I say hey, he can't have too much of that.  At 12:43 pm he took a last breath.  He just stopped.  It was soo sad.  Wow.  That was the end.  His fight was over.








We waited and let everyone have a moment if they wanted.  Abi go there around 3:00 pm.  They found a substitute for Primary because I had to call and get a Piano Substitute so they knew something was up.  Brooke got there eventually too.  She was working at the Zoo. We decided we needed to call the mortuary and the Nurse.  The Nurse came and did whatever she did and so did the Mortuary.  


Here they are loading the body into that Van.  I thought they would at least bring a limo.  Nope just a van...They even wore suits.  Really?  Wear jeans and a shirt...!





We went to the mortuary to check the body and he looked good.  His skin wasn't sunken in anymore and his color was even better.  


What an interesting experience.  I hve

2018 Lagoon

We got lagoon passes for the first time in about 4 years.  We have used them a few times...





Jack has been a bit of a scardy cat.  He is super scared of most rides...He wanted to go on this dragon ride that went around in a circle but it went too fast..after he surveyed it for about 5 minutes...

Well, we decided he couldn't be such a wuss anymore.  We have been convincing him to branch out on a few other rides.  He has been a pretty good sport.  Here he is on Rattle Snake Rapids...he was SOO scared but he did give it a try.  He DID it.  




Nick is NOT scared!





While they were on the Log ride that I didn't go on because two fit perfectly in the log thing...I found this ice cream shop in Pioneer Village.  The only thing valuable in Pioneer village besides the restroom



Some video jack took in the car on our way.