Grandpa Doug's Birthday!

On April 15, we went over to Aaron's brother's house (such a short drive now!  WooHoo!) for dinner to celebrate Aaron's dad's birthday.  Adam smoked some ribs and man they were so good.  Danielle had some fun games for the kids to play.

Pinata

Opening presents

J gave Grandpa a fake rat.  See the monkey head in the crown?  That was the head of the pinata.  Grandpa Doug is so fun!

Pin the Pfft on the Old Fart!

BaHaHa!

Grandma Vickie made yummy eclair cake for dessert

Happy Birthday Grandpa Doug!

Tulip Festival

On April 14, we went to the Thanksgiving Point gardens to the tulip festival.

It was a lot of fun and the tulips were so pretty!

Aiden was so happy riding in the stroller!

A few of our favorite tulips

So pretty!

We saw this tree as we were strolling around and decided we need it in our backyard

We will be doing this a lot more because we bought a membership!

I'm so excited to have something to do with them this summer.

Easter

Easter was the day after Pa's funeral, so my kids are lucky that the Easter bunny remembered to come.  We didn't even have a chance to dye eggs this year.  Luckily my kids were quite happy to find plastic eggs filled with candy (and puffs for Aiden).  I didn't even wake up to see them find their eggs.  Isn't that horrible?  So, I just told Aaron to take pictures for me.  We teach primary, so our lesson was on the resurrection.  It was a nice lesson to teach the day after my grandpa's funeral.

Here are the kids in their Easter outfits.  These were actually taken this last Sunday, so 2 weeks after Easter.  I did take some pictures of them on Easter, but they didn't really turn out that great.  Well, these ones didn't either.  If I am behind the camera, Aiden has started to not want his picture taken.  He tries to get to me.  Oh well, they look cute though don't they?

Happy Birthday Dallin!

Our sweet Dallin turns 6 today!

Dallin loves trucks, tractors, and cars

He is doing really well in school. 

 I am amazed at how many words he can read now. He reads well (when he wants to).

He is really smart and loves to ask questions.

He can make Aiden laugh his little head off.

Grandpa Steve is still his best friend.

He can be a really sweet boy.  I love it when I drop him off at school and he takes the time to blow me a kiss.

He is a very outgoing boy and makes friends easily.

He likes to ask if what he is eating is healthy

He loves Adventure Time

He is like his dad and likes computer and video games.

He likes to point out the different cars to Aaron.

He has a good imagination.

He is very healthy despite visits to PCMC as a baby.  One for a hydrocele surgery and the other time for a consult to find out he has torticollis.

This is actually Pa holding Dallin

We love you Dallin!

Pa's Funeral

Pa's funeral was held on April 3, 2012.  We had a viewing before and once again the line was out the door.  It was so amazing.  The funeral service was very nice.  It went a bit long for my kids, but they did surprisingly well.  Especially considering how they usually act during sacrament meeting.  My mom and Ralpher spoke, each one of the grandkids and their spouses shared a memory of Pa.  We had an amazing musical number.  And one of Pa's dear friends spoke.  The chapel was completely packed.  After the service we went to the cemetery.  The graveside service was short. 

The Evans women and Brooke

Dang, this turned out blurry.  People kept standing in front of me.

The pallbearers were: Spencer, Nate, Chase, Hunter, Quin, and Pa's 3 brothers.

Pa's beautiful casket.  He had always said he wanted to be buried in a pine box.  I don't think this was pine, but I think he would have liked it.

The beautiful flowers

Now, Pa was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity at the U.  He stayed connected with the fraternity all his life.  He helped with the remodel of the frat house and that is where we had MeMe and Pa's 50th wedding anniversary a few years ago (here). The Sigma Chi's have a white rose ceremony.  All of these amazing fraternity boys(past and present) came to the funeral and the graveside.  At the graveside they sang the song and presented the roses.  It was so touching.

The next three pictures show just how many fraternity boys came to show their support

Here is a video of the song.

It is not a very good one because I was just using my still camera.

This white rose song reminds me of when Aaron and I went to dinner with the adults from my family after the anniversary party while Andrew was still in town.  Pa had some of his Sigma Chi friends with him and they sang MeMe a song.  I can't remember if it was this song, or a different one.  It is one they sing when a Sigma Chi gets engaged( I think).  Anyway.  He and his friends sang it to MeMe in the middle of the restaurant and we gave her roses.  The whole place was staring at us by the time we were done.  People even came up to us after and complimented the guys on their song.

Aaron and Brooke saying goodbye.

After we were done at the graveside, we went to the church for the luncheon.

Can I just say, MeMe's relief society is dang amazing.  They put together this wonderful lunch for us and took care of everything.  After the lunch we just went back to MeMe's to be with her.

Pa's Viewing

On April 6, 2012 we held Pa's viewing.

It was so nice to see how many people loved and cared about Pa.  I couldn't believe how many people came.  The line was out the door at one point.  Like out the door of the room we were in and then out the door of the building.  It was amazing.

Here is the wonderful display that the Evans family put together.

Representing the cabin.

Architectural achievements

Architect and watercolors

Representing other things that he loved.  Like racing and building models.

And that shirt hanging up?  It was his favorite.

Representing his love of tennis and basketball.

A close up of the cabin display.

This table represented his love of his family.

The Evans family did such and amazing job picking out just the right things to represent Pa.

This is how we kept our kids entertained.  Well, for a little while until they realized there was a basketball court they could run around on.

Nate holding Aiden.  He was so tired and cuddly.

Kassie and Aiden

Here are some of the flowers that were sent for the funeral.

Here is a picture of the whole family and MeMe after the viewing.

When the viewing was over, the older 2 kids went with my parents to have a sleepover.  Aaron and I took Aiden with us to a hotel downtown.  We didn't want to have to drive an hour home and then turn around and come all the way back.  We stopped at Hire's for dinner.  Aiden had fallen asleep in his carseat, so we just did the car hop thing and took our food to the hotel.

Do you want to see just how tired our little guy was?

I was able to change his diaper and put his pj's on without him even waking up.

See?  He was completely out.  It was so funny.

The viewing was definitely hard.  It was so hard to see Pa like that.  It is crazy how different he looked.  Not only because he had been so sick and had lost so much weight, but I think your spirit must add a little something to your appearance.  Pa was buried with his favorite pen(a Pilot) and Nate's Jazz shirt.