California

My Aunt Mary passed away last week after a hard battle with Cancer. Ashlyn and I were fortunate enough to make the trip out to California for her funeral. At first I didn't think we'd be able to go, but after pulling together with several of my siblings we filled two vans full of people and split the gas money. Aimee and I drove and we squished Sara, Brett, Hannah, Brian, Keily and some kids in the remaining seats. It was crazy but fun. Ashlyn did surprisingly well with the car ride. She only cried once and whined a few other times. She was probably the easiest kid of the bunch. I think that the stops at the Salt Flats were her favorite parts both there and on the way back. It was a good opportunity to get some energy out.

The funeral was beautiful. And I must say that the prayers were probably my favorite part. They were so heart felt and faith filled that you couldn't help but fill the spirit.

Unfortunately we missed the dedication of the grave because we got lost on our way to the cemetery, but we didn't miss the opportunity to take some long overdue pictures.

This is my mom, her mom and all of her siblings but Daryl who lives in Florida and was unable to make the trip out for the funeral.

And this is Uncle Ron's family minus Aunt Mary.

While there we stayed with Aunt Gail, visited with family that we haven't seen in a long time, and had a little fun too. We went swimming a couple of times. Ashlyn wouldn't touch the water the first day and instead spent her time entertaining herself with things like other people's flipflops. The second day she warmed up to the water and had a lot of fun.

We visited the Nimbus fish hatchery. Unfortunately it closed five minutes after we got there so we didn't get to take the full tour.

We spent one day visiting some places that held a lot of memories for Mom and Dad. And Ariane took us to Old Fair Oaks to see Grandpa Bair's block. I felt famous seeing it. It's near one of the street corners. It says Evan Bair Family 10. The 10 is for his ten children. I guess Great Grandpa Astle had one right there nearby, but somehow I missed seeing it.

And of course we got to see the Sacramento Temple. It's right next the the Mormon Center which is the church were they held the funeral. We were hoping to do baptisms or a session, but they were closed for cleaning the entire time we were there.