Family At its Best

Grandpa Wimmer's funeral was in Logan, Utah this last weekend, and I am so glad we all went! I will only say a few quick things about it because I have too many kids to really sit down and think or blog for long:

 1. Everything was done just right. Angie's beautiful displays, Dick's eulogy, Alan's talk about the resurrection, the grandchildren singing, the sweet poem Ang and Karen took turns reading, the family and friends who came to the viewing, the flowers, the military honors and dedicatory prayer at the cemetery, the meal the ward provided--it all felt just right. I loved being there (and having the noisiest grandchildren there). Everyone really pulled together and honored Father in a beautiful way.

 2. I love being a part of that Wimmer clan! I really, really like my siblings in law and their spouses. Like I would choose to hang out with these people even if we weren't related. I especially like Steve and Deb this time, who were so kind to let us stay with them and to adopt our little dog. (Mo has arrived. One of Steve's friends once said that in his next life he wanted to come back as one of Steve's dogs. Our little Moses is living that dream. And he is loving it already!) I adore my nieces and nephews and their spouses and their children. They are the best! It was so great to see pretty much all of them except Matt and his family, who I will see next month at the reunion. And I am so blessed to have JoAnn for a mother-in-law. I can't even say how much I love her. She is only a blessing to me ever. I can't think of even one thing that might be a downside about her. I loved seeing her grace and strength through this time. It gave me courage that I might be able to one day handle being separated from my true love for a while in this life. And of course, I love Father. That doesn't necessarily follow that you love your father-in-law, but I love mine. I feel like he treated me like one of his own daughters.

 3. I love my own little family. As we were coming home through airports I kept counting to see if everyone was there, because in the crowd of airports, ours didn't seem like much, but they made everything better. The big kids helped smooth everything as we were dragging too many things through too many places and trying to do everything we wanted. When I got a goose egg as we were leaving church (a heavy metal post fell on the back of my head as I was exiting the building), Willa took Eve (who was miraculously saved from injury) and all the kids took themselves to Grandma's house while Alan held me until I could stop crying (I'm pretty sure that was because I was still fasting).

This is what I ended up getting pictures of:

If you were a kid there was a lot of this kind of thing.

If you were an adult there was a lot of this kind of thing.

My family.  And my wonderful dad!  I think Mom was busy talking to someone.