I must say we had a very busy past few days. This Thanksgiving holiday was filled with a lot of love and family. It was a great day but also a very hard day. My beautiful sweet Grandmother (my mom's mom) Mona Miles Nebeker went into the hospital about four weeks ago to have open heart surgery. My mom has been up here for the past three week's taking care of her and spending the entire time in the ICU at McKay Dee Hospital. My Grandma was constantly getting better and then worse and it was quite a roller coaster. My mom and aunt Joni have been up there and decided to get away for the holiday and let my Grandma rest. My Aunt Joni changed her mind and went back up to the Ogden to spend the weekend up there and watch over my Grandma. Well my Grandma just wasn't getting better and her body started shutting down. She passed away Thanksgiving afternoon. I know she is much happier where she is but she will be very missed. She was such a wonderful Grandma, she loved all of her Grandchildren very much and we miss her a lot. Luckily we had a lot of family around to comfort us on a very hard day. We kept her in mind all day and tried to enjoy the holiday. We did get to do some fun things the rest of the weekend to get our mind off of it, especially my mom.
Zac, Kara, Lola, Blake, Blake's gf Julie, Logan and I flew to Arizona on Wednesday afternoon and were picked up by my parents and Ryan and Lani. My dad rented a 15 passenger van in California so we could all ride together from the airport to my aunt and uncle's. It was quite funny to have a huge van pull up to the airport and all of us pile in. Very memorable indeed! Wednesday evening we just relaxed and spent time with the family. My cousin Marcus got home a few weeks ago from his mission and we finally got to see him. I was so excited! It was a lot of fun seeing him. Thursday morning we went down to the park in Benson and played a game of football. It was mostly guys that played and I took pictures. It was fun to watch all the "older" dad's and uncle's run around trying to get back the skills from when they were in high school playing football-I don't think they got it back! After that we got ready for Thanksgiving dinner, got the bad news about my Grandma, relaxed and tried to stay calm, watched Zac deep fry the turkey and catch the grass on fire, ate a ton of food, watched some football on TV, played the Wii and did some crafts.
Friday we got up and drove to Tombstone and Bisbee Arizona. We had a GREAT day! It was nice to have something to keep us busy so we didn't start crying! Tombstone is a very very old town where there used to be many cowboys, bars, showdowns and just a bunch of old western stuff. Bisbee is an old mining town about an hour south of Benson almost to Mexico. My Grandpa Fenn worked in the copper mine there so it was cool to spend some time in the old town and see where my Grandpa did some work. The town is SO unique, it didn't feel like we were in Arizona at all, it's tucked down in this valley and is quite beautiful. We had lunch at a hotel my parents stayed at on their honeymoon and spent some time walking around the town.
Saturday we went to Karchner Caverns again but went on a different tour than the time we went in the summer. Caves just amaze me, it's crazy how long it takes for everything to grow in there. Incredible. That afternoon we took family pictures since my whole family was together and it's gonna be awhile since everyone will be in different places for Christmas. They turned out very good-I'll post some later. Kara, Natalie and I made some butternut squash curry soup that evening and laughed and talked the whole time. My family stayed up late that night just laughing and talking and getting counsel from dad (as usual :)).
This morning Logan and I got up and left with David, Natalie and Amanda at 6:00am. We drove ALL day and saw some pretty cool things. We drove over the Navajo Bridge and stopped to look over the side. Totally creeped me out! We finally got home after about 12 hours of driving and are now getting ready for a long week of homework, work and school.
We had a great weekend, and loved spending so much time with so much family. This weekend is my Grandma's funeral so it's gonna be a hard one. We love her very much and miss her.
Blake's game face!
Can you see Logan in the background? Lovely hat he has on!!
Thanksgiving-"we're having a hard day"
Most of the guys there for the holiday, I can't find my one of us girls.
Zac got the 2nd turkey all ready to deep fry-it was very very tasty. The other turkey was cooked in a pit BBQ all night, DELICIOUS!
Tombstone, AZ-Mom, Lola, Dad and Logan
You gotta drink Sarsparilla when you go to Tombstone
"where it all started!!" ;)
Bisbee, AZ
Bisbee
Bisbee Copper Mine
Navajo Bridge
David and Logan
I just have to add in that my Mother is the most amazing person I know hands down. She has been back and forth from Utah, California and Arizona taking care of her mother and our family. My Mom is so strong, I love her so much for doing all she did these past few weeks. She and my Aunt Joni spent as much time as they possibly could with my Grandma and I admire them very much. I am very very blessed to have a wonderful mother, I love her so much.
