Two Years

 With Grandma Sherri in 2011

Lily

Jeff

Cedric

Sophie (I was six month pregnant)

September 11, 2011

The Funeral

Last night was the two year anniversary of Mom's death.  Aimee and I went and visited her grave.

 Then we went to my dad's house to listen to the funeral, watch the funeral video and to look at the funeral book.

 For the most part I was good all day, not too emotional.  I felt like while we were at my Dad's house I had just enough grieving, I didn't cry too much, but enough.

When I got home I watched this video my cousins made.  That's when I lost it!

 I miss Mom, but life continues on and luckily I feel she is still a part of my life even though she's not physically here.  It's weird to reflect back on the events of two years ago.  It feels like forever ago.  Love you, Mom!

Grandmas

Today I was looking at my blog pictures when Sophie climbed up on my lap.  She started pointing to everyone and telling me who they were.  When we got to this picture... 

she said "ga-pa", "yily" and "Sue". 

Then I started to cry.  Suzy is Sophie's now grandma, the one she'll know growing up, the one she'll always associate my dad with.  I'm so glad she has Suzy as a bonus grandma.  She'll be the one Sophie will know as grandma while growing up.  But I'm sad she'll never know her real grandma.  

So I decided to bring up some pictures of my mom to show her.  She kept pointing to my mom and saying "mom".  I guess we do look a lot a like!

This month marks two years since my mom's accident.  There are moments like these where I still miss her and cry.  It feels like it's been so long since I saw her last!  I hope I can teach my kids about her and help her legacy to live on.

End of Summer Post

Here’s a quick run-through of our last few weeks of summer that I haven’t blogged about yet.

The end of July I took my mom’s BFF, Kim to our family cabin for lunch.  Kim is one of the sweetest, most caring people I know.  She was my young women’s leader when I was a teenager, we’ve gone on family trips with their family, I’ve played with her kids and was good friends with her now daughter-in-law, etc.  We go way back.  But it hasn’t been until my mom passed away that we’ve developed a true friendship.  When Kim came over to help me clean my house for preschool open house on Thursday (because not only is she the kind of person that would help me clean, but bring me flowers too!) I told her, “there are a lot of things I’ve inherited from my mom since she’s gone. But you are my favorite!”

I will forever be in her debt, but at least I tried to show her my gratitude by surprising her and taking her to our family cabin.  It was one of the places that her and my mom would go to often, and I got my mom’s favorite pizza for us to have for lunch too (Papa Murphy’s Veggie DeLite).  It was such a fun day, just me, my kids and Kim.  I love her!

 

In August I had my 15 year high school reunion.  I can’t believe I’ve been out of high school for 15 years!

Lily had the opportunity to “babysit” our neighbor’s chickens for a few days.

We had a fun pool party with Tom’s family one Monday night at a neighbor’s pool.

 

We went to Liberty Park one night for a picnic dinner and to play at the park and the Seven Canyons Fountain.

 

My cousin, Alana lives a few blocks from the park and met up with us too. 

We had the fountain almost all to ourselves.

 

It was fun to have Tom with us!

A few nights later I went over to Alana’s house to help her paint.  She’s been living/working in Saudi Arabia the past two years and is going to England this fall to get her Masters, so she decided it was time to sell her house. 

I love her and miss her when she’s gone.

We had Tom’s work family picnic one Saturday.  The kids got to pet a giant python, meet Jack Sparrow,

 

play in the bounce houses and eat lunch (Tom’s brother, Kurtis and his girlfriend Anna were there too, since Kurt works at the same place as Tom).

Sophie enjoyed her cookie. The kids met the RLS lion too.

 

Back in June Lily and Jeff wrote a book and illustrated it all by themselves.  We decided to use them for a fundraiser to go towards the adoption of a child for Natalie & Travis (their new step aunt and uncle).  They sold 112 books and presented Natalie and Travis with the money in August!

 

I met up with Alana again as well as our old college roommate, Jenny.  It was fun to catch up on old times and eat yummy food at The Cheesecake Factory.

 

My cousin, Shelley and her boys were off track before we even started school, so we met up one day at the Herriman Reservoir/Beach.  They have an awesome beach and playground. 

 

Tom went on his long weekend guys trip to St. George with his high school buddies.  Of course, I don’t have any pictures to prove it.  Guys don’t think about taking pictures :)

While he was gone, Lily found a recipe for some cookies in the Friend magazine and made them all by herself last Sunday!

 

Monday the kids started school.  Lily’s in 5th grade and Jeff’s in 2nd.  Jeff’s with his buddy, Steven.

 

Some carrots from our garden (the pen is for size comparison)…

This past Thursday was my preschool open house.  I start teaching on Tuesday.  Sophie swiped my name tag.

Yesterday we went to Seven Peaks as a family.  It was our first time making it there despite having season passes since June (we got a good deal, plus gift cards, so it was still worth it).  It was fun, but I like Classic better.

I’m sad summer is at an end, but glad to be back in a routine again.