Saying Goodbye...

I went down to AZ for the funeral. It was great to be down there, but I have to say it was REALLY weird to be without kids for 4 days. D was amazing, and my lovely friend Diana took them on Monday. I so appreciate it. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

I got there Friday, and it was so beautiful down there! After helping my Mom with picking up and dropping off cousin Jay who was in the hospital with mrsa (y.i.k.e.s.) We Clorox wiped the car and bathed in purell, and then headed home. GIRLS NIGHT!! You see, it was the father and sons camp out that weekend, which meant CPK, shopping, and a movie, 17 again. Funny movie, but don't take anyone younger than 16 to it...A few awkward moments with my baby sis... Arizona truly is the promised land. They have Harkins Theaters, who gives you the option of Red Vines or twizzlers, unlike all theaters here who only sell the ugly red-headed step child twizzlers. Licorice should taste like licorice, not strawberry or cherry...ugg.. I digress... Girls night out was a blast, although I think if I posted some of the convo, Corinn would be horribly embarrassed... if you want to know the incident with the fruit cup, you have to ask her...

Saturday I went to a cake tasting with Chels. The cake tasted like straight sugar, but the decorating was awesome. After we went to lunch and talked for 3 hours. I love Chels. She is so funny. Their relationship is interesting to me, She is the commitment-phobe...and I find that very entertaining. I really like Seth. She really nailed it with him. That evening I saw wolverine (totally amazingly awesome!!! but anything with hugh jackman would be totally amazingly awesome even if it was terrible...)with the fam, and Damon was horribly jealous. I'm taking him to see it tonight.

Sunday we went to church. I must admit, I love going back to the ward I grew up in. Everyone makes such a fuss over you. That is such a great ward. I made dinner for the family. Ribs, mashed potatoes, spinach poppy seed salad, homemade rolls and corn. It was delish, ...especially on fast Sunday... Chels and Seth came over that afternoon and played croquet with us. Dad won. He killed us. They stayed for a few hours, and it was great to get to know him a little better.

Monday was the funeral, and it was very well attended. I met her cousin Jerry, and her stepson David and his wife. Such sweet people. I played Massenets Meditation from the opera Thais, and I loved it, I hope everyone else did too. That song is so moving and beautiful. I love playing it. Its my Mom's favorite out of all the music I've played. I think I'm up to 12 requests for me to play it at peoples funerals. I don't know how many funerals I have played it at... Its very flattering. I think it is the one song I can play well. I hope Marian loved it. Saying goodbye was very bittersweet. She is greatly loved, and will be greatly missed.

I don't know if its weird to take photos at a graveside casket, but I couldn't help myself. I wished I had brought the heavy artillery (my camera), but Moms little point and shoot did pretty well...

A great trip, and now I need to get on editing a bunch of photos, I have 4 shoots on the block... Maybe I'll even update my photoblog... And I need to update this blog, we celebrated a birthday, and it deserves a good post, I just need to (again) edit the photos. heres a little hint MARIOCART!!