Nana

Sunday the 18th I found out that my last remaining grandparent had passed away. She was a wonderful Lady. And now she is off on her next adventure. I'm glad she is now in a bright, happy and painless place.

Though I always new her as Grandma Merrill the grandkids were encouraged to call her Nana. So that is how my kids remember her. 

Well our full house, Mark and Sherlyn and their five with the 6 of us geared up for a road trip. We borrowed a 12 passenger Van and we packed it with people, pillows, baggage and snacks. As well as laptops, dvd players, books and a GPS.

Our can of... people, rumbled off on Wed and Thursday we rumbled into California. We only had one 
mishap. Claire lost a shoe to a late night driver change. So if you see a white and blue tnnis shoe on the side of I-5 somewhere in Oregon or Northern Californina, please return it and I'll pay the postage. ; ) The highlight was definitely the 30 minutes when Mark strapped the DVD player to his HEAD so the kids could watch it behind him.
After we arrived, as we were stretching our legs even, my Mother drove up. She had flown in from Germany where she is serving her mission.  
My father had to stay behind but it was sooooo wonderful to see my mother. She got to see Benjamin for the first time ever! Kevin and Tanja 
were the brave ones who opened their hearts and home to the whole sardine can of us!! They deserve gold stars on their foreheads!!! 
The kids were anxious to get out and move around. To take advantage of the setting and keep the kids busy we went to the beach on Friday with family from Ohio, California and Washington. The cousins had a wonderful time seeing eachother again. We get so little time with all of them!  The sun shone bright, the wind was warm and the water was pretty nice too, after you braced yourself for the first 3 mins!
Saturday was the service and it was beautiful. She was such a grand lady and aptly described as Regal. She will be missed. The whole extended family went to Vince's Italian restaurant afterward as has been the custom. It was a sweet and happy sadness.

Sunday was another treat as we went to visit Dan and Sherlyn's Uncle Wayne and Aunt Anya. They live in San Clemente and it was a wonderful visit with them. They even got the beads out and some of the kids made jewelry. I wish we could spend more time with them! They are fantastic! Sunday night we arrived late to a family BBQ where we said goodbye to much of our family party. The older kids were especially sweet. They knotted them selves all together and cried, "NO DISASSEMBLE!!"

The next day was another fun day. We spent it at Disneyland. My kids had never been and they were soooo excited. It was a family event as Keven and Tanja as well as Jessica W. came and spent the day with us. It was particularly funny as Tanja and I were walking around with our second oldest, behind Dan and Kevin who were pushing strollers with both our two youngest inside, while our older kids were off with other family. She has a girl a boy and two more girls. I had a boy, a girl and two more boys. We were reverse twinners. Fun!

Tuesday we repacked that human can and took off north. We stopped in Lodi, CA and met up with Dan and Sherlyn's Grandmother Phyllis, who is now the last remaining great-grandparent for all the kids. We had dinner with her and it was awesome getting to know her a bit more. Its a side of the family we haven't been as close to and I really wish we could be.
We arrived back home on Wednesday and as much as we wanted to sleep for a week, we had Halloween coming up, A baby blessing, and Claire's Birthday and Baptism all that week.
We almost postponed the baptism and blessing until the look on Claire's face prompted otherwise. But more on that later.