Memorial Day Weekend '11

This Memorial Day weekend was a busy one for us. When we were first talking about it, we knew we wouldn't make a weekend up at the cabin, since there is still snow there. We can't really get in by snowmobile, because of patchy snow, with 3 feet in some places and very little in others. So I told Larry I'd like to do a few things. I would like to go to Jordan's graduation in Vernal and I would like to go to Idaho to help Marla decorate graves. I asked him which one he would rather do and he said, "Let's do both." So we made plans to do both. My last day of school was that Friday and I didn't get out until 1:05. I knew it would take a few minutes to get out of there and by the time I got home it was about 1:35 or so. Larry had had the day off and so he already had the dogs down to the kennel and so we were pretty ready to walk out the door, which was good since Jordan's graduation was at 5:30 and it was a 3 hour drive at least. We arrived there at 5:00 and made our way to the High School Stadium. Georgia and Richard were already there and had saved us some seats. Thanks Georgia!














It was fun to be out and enjoy the graduation of the last of the nieces and nephews. We stayed there until Saturday afternoon and before heading for home, we took some time to go out to my nephew, Dustin's grave, who passed a year ago. We left a flower plant there and left our love with him. We hope Ashley took the plant home and planted it in her yard.








Larry had said "yes" to us speaking in Sacrament Meeting on that Sunday. I have no idea why he thought that was a good idea.. :) Larry had worked on his talk a little throughout the week, I on the other hand had had very little time, since I was trying to get my classroom cleaned out along with the busy life of just finishing the last week of school. Finally that Thursday I sat down and found a bunch of articles and pulled out some thoughts I liked and put them into a word document to work on throughout the weekend. I had told Larry that I didn't have time to feel the spirit that week.. lol ... but I guess it found a way through anyway, because I had a plan of how to put the talk together. It was on the restoration and that is a pretty wide topic to begin with so I was happy that the spirit gave me a plan. Anyway....thank goodness for laptops, because I worked on my talk a little on Saturday at the Millett's and then pretty much finished my talk on the way home from Vernal and then when we got home at 9:00 I helped Larry tweak his talk a little. I'm not sure that they were great, but it was great to have the talks over. We got out of church at 2:00 and came home and finished getting things ready for the trip to Idaho. Our niece, Katie, had graciously accepted for us to stay with her in Wendell and then we wouldn't have to go all the way to Bruneau and then back to Wendell. Thanks, Katie. Anyway, we headed off for Idaho around 3:00.








We had bought some plants out in Vernal for all the graves that we had planned to put flowers on. I knew that Marla had the artificial flowers for a lot of the graves. Anyway, we stopped in Roy to spend a little time at Larry's parents' graves to pay our respect and love to them. We saw that Larry's brother and wife had already been there, but we left a couple of beautiful geraniums there and took a few pictures. We then headed on to Idaho. We arrived at Katie's and spent some time visiting with her. After a great nights sleep we arose and got ready to head to Gooding to meet my sister, Marla and two of her other girls, Margie and Emily. Gooding is where my mother was raised and where my maternal grandmother and grandfather are buried along with a few other family members. I was a little shocked at the Gooding Cemetery, it is always so beautiful and green with the old trees around. When we got there the grass was all brown inbetween the headstones. I guess, after talking to someone in the cemetery, they thought they had a weed killer and instead they found out it was roundup. I don't know what they will do about it, but I hope to see it beautiful and green again when I go up again.








We then headed to Wendell, where my mother and father are buried, along with a ton of other paternal relatives. Among some of them are my paternal great grandparents, paternal grandparents and many of my aunts and uncles. I only knew my maternal grandmother personally, but I have great feelings for all my grandparents, since my parents have done a great job of bringing stories of my ancestors to life for me.









I love learning and knowing things about my family and I hope that will help me know them when I see them in the eternities. Anyway, back to the decoration of the graves. We spent time taking care of mom and dad's grave and I planted some red geraniums in the planters next to the headstone. Marla usually puts a hanging plant on the grave also. It is still great to feel like you are taking care of and giving your respect to your parents even after they have gone beyond the veil. We miss them and love them for all they have given to us, taught us, and for the love they gave us throughout their lives. While there we saw some cousins, which is always fun to see each other and enjoy some time catching up. We missed seeing my dad's only sister still living, my Aunt June, I was sorry that we did.
After finishing up at the cemetery we headed back to Katie's and had some lunch with Marla and the girls. I asked them if they'd like to go to Twin with us and go to Shoshone Falls. Shoshone Falls are falls in the canyon the Snake River has cut out by Twin Falls, Idaho. In fact you have to cross over a bridge that spans the canyon to get to Twin Falls. I knew that the water is a lot higher this year with the wet spring and snow still up in the mountains and I thought Larry would like to see the falls. I can't believe that we've never taken the time to go over there to the falls since we've been married. Marla and the girls thought that would be fun, so except Emily, who had taken off to go back to school in Rexburg, we all headed off to Twin Falls. I guess we weren't the only ones who thought it would be fun, because when we got over there there was a line of cars going down into the canyon. Since we were in two cars we decided to leave one car at the top and jump into the other car and just take one down. We weren't disappointed when we got down to the falls. The water was pouring over the falls and the mist was so thick we couldn't really see the bottom of the falls. Shoshone Falls are actually taller than Niagra Falls, at 212 feet, they just aren't as wide.










Anyway, we had fun and enjoyed our time there. We made our way out of the canyon and said our goodbyes to Marla and the girls and headed for home. Once home we picked up our girls from the kennel and headed home. Sadie and Brandie were very excited to see us of course and we were happy to be home. Great weekend! Thanks everyone for putting us up and making our weekend terrific.