Homecomings and Farewells

The last few weeks have had their ups and downs; filled with happiness and sadness. I'll start with the happy things/homecomings!

 

On Wednesday (Aug 5) We drove over to Cody where we met up with the rest of Christian's family and anxiously awaited the homecoming of Christian's youngest brother, Jacob, from his mission in the Ukraine. We waited and waited until we got word that the plane was unable to get signal because a tower was down and had to land in Billings, MT, but would be on their way as soon as they fueled up. We decided to run to K-mart for something to do while we waited. By the time we got back, we found out that they still hadn't left Billings and that Jacob was going to get off the plane there and wait for Jan and Stan to come and pick him up. They decided to do it this way because there was another big storm coming through and if the plane wasn't going to be able to land, it was headed back to Denver for the night. This way, they would be able to have Jacob home that night! So, we headed over to Burger King with the rest of Christian's brothers and their kids for dinner, hit Wal-Mart, and then headed home and waited up for a short visit from Jacob. It was great to see him and the boys are excited to have him home!

The grandkids waiting for Jacob's return!

The boys made signs to hold up at the airport but didn't get to use them there. We took a picture of them while we were getting gas and sent a picture to Jan so she could show Jacob when he got off the plane. Carson's says Welcome home in Ukrainian.

We had Grandma Asay text us when they were pulling into our subdivision so the boys could go outside with their posters to greet Jacob.



Thursday night, after a trip to Billings, we headed out to grandpa and grandma Asay's house so we could visit with Jacob a little more. He had gifts for each of the little nephews and nieces that they thought were awesome! 


Listening to uncle Jacob talk about something cool.
 



The kids with Jacob and their cool souveniers!

He got each of the nephews a mace (which is basically a spiked club) and the nieces dolls. Each of the sister in laws got larger dolls and the brothers got ties.

 

He brought home some real neat Ukrainian clothing for himself and for Jan and Stan.

And now for farewells:
Thursday (Aug 6) went made a trip up to Billings for a doctor appointment with Dr. Grosso so Carson could get his stitches out. Dr. Grosso was super impressed with how it was healing and said that he even thinks that when it's totally healed, we might not even be able to see much of the scar. He also reported that the pathology report on the tissue they removed came back clear and that there wasn't any more of it that they were going to have to go in and remove. The best part of the visit was getting the go ahead to waterski (and other fun summer water things). The doctor thought it was hilarious and genius when I told him we saran wrapped his head a couple of times so that he could participate in some water fun. We heard him talking about it to some of the nurses outside our room while we were finishing up. Dr. Grosso's nurse took out the stitches and complimented Carson several times on being able to hold so still while she worked. There were a couple of ouchie ones where they skin had grown over or there was a scab, but he was a champ! We celebrated after with lunch at KFC, since we weren't able to go after his surgery (it was closed) as we promised we would.


 

After the stitches were removed

Enjoying lunch at KFC!

 

On July 28th, we lost Christian's Grandma Dorothy in a car wreck. A tire from a semi came off the trailer, hitting her car, causing her to swerve and hit an suv head on (she was the only fatality). We were all in shock to get the news after it happened and very sad. We have seen an out pour of love from our friends and community members over the past weeks. On Saturday, August 8th, we attended her funeral. It was a beautiful service and nice to see/be with family members. We will miss Grandma Dorothy lots. She loved having us stop in to say hi...especially our boys! We will miss her at story time reading books, her awesome sewing skills, her parties, and most of all her loving hugs and smile! We are grateful for our knowledge that families are forever and that we can see her again some day!

 





 

Her pall bearers were grandsons Michael, Charlie, Christian, Matthew, Daniel, Jared, Zane and Jacob.

All the pall bearers and honorary pall bearer Peyton. Her other honorary pall bearer was Davis (who is on his mission in Japan)



All of the grandkids: Maddison, Heather, Michael, Charlie, Christian, Matthew, Daniel, Jared, Zane, Peyton, Jacob and Lauren.

Jan and her siblings.



Dave & Sherie, Stan & Jan, Richard & Diane, Brad & Renae

Her ward put on a nice luncheon afterwards for all the family.

After the 3rd kid fell off the stage knocking off plants, we turned on a movie for the kids and they sat and watched nicely together.

 

back: Charlie, Heather, Emily, Michael, Jacob, Daniel, Kasi, Jared, Ranee, Matthew, Charlene, Zane, Lauren, Maddison, Lauren W., Jill, Christian.
Middle:Dave, Sheri, Jan, Stahle, Stan, Ian, Diane, Richard, Renae, Brad.
Front: Travis, Rider, Chloe, Janelle, Paige, Britt, Carson, Peyton, Stetson, Landon and Kandace

Later that evening, we had dinner together with family at Jan's house. Someone had ordered a 6 foot sub for the family that we ate that night.



The kids had so much fun playing together. Carson and Peyton were especially good buds. They hung out every chance they could during the weekend and even went to the movies toghether.