Seattle adventures and my family!

It's always hard for my family to get together... with all of us spread over three time zones, and at limited times in our careers, the five of us are all really only able to be together at Christmas time. This fall, we got the opportunity to all be together in Seattle, because of a memorial honoring my great-great aunt Verge, who just passed away last May. While it was essentially a funeral service, it was all in good spirits, (Aunt Verge was 104 when she passed away... she definitely lived a good and fruitful life), and it was so much fun to connect in a place other than home.


The vacation was bittersweet as well, as Kim wouldn't be returning back to Chicago with me. What a summer we had though! We were able to travel to both Kirtland and Nauvoo and see the Church's historical sites, we had the opportunity to go to St. Louis and see the Mississippi and the Arch. We had to hide out during a tornado watch in some crazy podunk town... and we went through a lot emotionally, and spiritually as well. I went back to the temple the last week of August for the first time in ten years, and I am so glad Kim got to be there with me for that. It makes the future really exciting to know we have both come so far.

My Aunt LeeAnne got to come with us to Seattle and see us as well, while we were there, and it is always such a pleasure listening to my mom and sister, and the other women of the family relaying the family stories. Crammed in my Aunt Betty's (Aunt Verge's daughter) apartment, and reliving the scandalous stories of the past made me miss my grandmother so much. She would have loved to revel with her cousins and daughters and grand daughters that night, laughing and honoring my aunt Vergie's memory. I am so lucky to come from the family I do, with such strong, beautiful and talented women.


I'm also grateful that my religious beliefs contain a belief about our family staying together after this life, as long as we consistently seek to be the best we can, and truly desire to attain perfection. It makes these sensitive things, such as a beloved family member passing away, really so much easier to bear.

I can't wait until Christmas when we are all able to be together again!