99

Today was my Grandma Parry's birthday. She would have been 99. Wow! I hope she is happy and having the best time with her husband and three daughters.

I had parent/teacher conference for Preston today. Almost every single teacher immediately said how he is crazy smart. His gym teacher didn't say that. He is doing great. He stayed after school today to retake a math test. PTCs were on zoom. I called in and Mr. VanOrden got on while he was walking down the hall. He said he was sorry he had to leave but he had 20 kids taking a math test in his room, including Preston. Just then Preston walked out. Mr. VanOrden went over his test with him right then. I got to wave to Preston over zoom. Haha. Preston got 100% on the test. Love that!

Preston is also starting work on his AP create task for computer science. We can't help him on it (like I would be any help) but he can talk to us about it. This will be submitted as part of his AP computer science test. Preston told us he is making a trivia game. That will be fun to see how it turns out!

Jorja came home today! She got home at midnight, but it was awesome to give her a hug and talk to her for a bit. Love having my kids home!

Masked Mike

Mike was so proud. He figured out how to make a mask out of underwear. Haha. These are his compression shorts that he used. What a weirdo.

Mike

I was working upstairs and got a text from Mike to come to Preston's room. I told the kids that I bet Dad is sleeping on a bed with the dog. Yep. That is what he wanted to show me. He was sleeping in a bed with Bear. Bear is NOT allowed on our bed. The kids love having him hop on theirs though.

Mike & Bear

 Found this picture of Grandma Parry, Mike and Grandpa Parry ~ I miss them!

We let Preston's friend Jack come over today. He wore a mask and they practiced social distancing. Preston was so happy. We could hear them giggling constantly. I went outside when Jack's mom came to pick him up. I stayed six feet away and talked to her while she was in her car. We talked for a long time. It was really nice to be able to interact with someone out of the house. She is super nice. I'm so glad Preston and Jack have so much fun together!

Jack & Preston

Triangles

I worked most the day on ironing triangles for a blanket I'm making. I can't believe how long that takes? Maybe because I'm using the iron my parents bought me when I went away to college for the first time. That was almost twenty-five years ago. They probably make more powerful irons now. Maybe I should look into that if I want to make Grandma Parry blankets on a regular basis!

Jorja went with Hailey and Allison to Create, which is a delicious dessert place. They came back here when they were finished and played around in the motorhome. I have no idea what they were doing. Hopefully something worthwhile.

Grandma Parry's Rolls

Sunday, on my Grandma Parry's birthday, my cousin Rozie posted a picture of Grandma's rolls that she had made. I remember my grandma always making these rolls. I remember helping her cut them out with Mason jar lids. I remember her putting a small slice of hard butter inside. They were delicious. Rachel asked for a copy of the recipe and Rozie posted this. Brooke commented and said, "Grandma would always cut them with a circle...like a pint sized mason jar size lid... Place a small tab of butter in the center then fold them in half over the butter so they would raise and look just like Rozie's picture. I noticed the recipe said roll out as desired and thought you might like to know how she did it." Too bad I don't have Rozie's picture.

I asked about when the raise step was. Rozie had mentioned that Grandma used to raise them in the fridge overnight. Rozie said, "I let them raise for a few hours before rolling them out AND after cutting them with a mason jar. Usually, I let them raise the 2nd time while I am at church. I think Grandma put them in the fridge overnight after using the mason jar lid so all she would do is take them out first thing in the morning to raise. Jackie would be the one to know exactly how Grandma made them.

Jackie said, "She would let the dough rise in a bowl and then punch it down (I remember the punch down because sometimes she let me do it. :) ) Then she would cut them out and put them in the fridge and pull them out the next morning and let them rise again. I have actually made them in the morning and cut them out, then let them rise just once. They aren't quite as fluffy but still pretty dang good. :)"

I just took a screen shot of the recipe, so I'm going to leave it with an awkward photo, I'll have to make these sometime soon. Preferably when I can have sugar and flour again!

Leaving the Cabin

It is always sad to leave the cabin.  Such a short trip, but so glad we could fit it in.  The kids humored me and took pictures before we left. Preston wanted a picture hugging everyone, so we have a lot.  The first one he took hugging me I am not going to post.  Preston looks adorable but the other kids...well, lets just say they have taken better photos.  Here are our hugging pictures.  Here is my world.

Stockton, Maysen, Stephanie, Jorja, Preston

 Stockton, Maysen, Preston, Stephanie, Jorja

 Stockton, Preston, Maysen, Stephanie, Jorja

Preston wanted to do a jumping picture.  The first attempt didn't turn out as planned.  Maysen and I look very silly.  Stockton was being a party pooper, but Preston is ADORABLE!  Even though I look ridiculous, I had to put this picture of Preston here.  I hope he always has such joy in his life.  He's awesome.

Stockton, Maysen, Stephanie, Jorja, Preston

 A tad bit better, but not by much

 Maysen, Jorja, Preston, Mike, Stockton

 Haha!  I love Mike!

Maysen, Jorja, Preston, Mike, Stockton

It started raining, the rest of my pictures have a raindrop on Maysen's face.  Sorry about that Maysen.  I put this picture in anyway because Jorja is adorable.

Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Mike

 Stockton makes me laugh.

Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Mike

 These guys are troopers to put up with me.

Stockton, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen, Jorja

That's okay.  They were rewarded with square ice cream cones.  I'm not sure how ice cream taste better square, but sometimes it just does.

Preston, Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

We stopped by Grandma Parry's grave.  I sure do miss her.  I hope she is having a great time with her girls!

Maysen, Stockton, Stephanie, Jorja, Preston

 Preston thought this tombstone was so cool!

Our next stop was Grandpa Parry's.  Grandpa was just moved to an assisted living facility.  He wasn't doing too great when we stopped by. We didn't stay long.  I hope he feels better soon.  We sure do love him.

We then drove the rest of the way home.  We got back around 6:00.  I love traveling, but it is always nice to be home.  I sure love my bed!

Sleepy Mike

Around lunch time Mike accidentally broke something he was doing at work.  He had to stay late to try and fix it.  I think he said about six people stayed with him.  Super nice.  He got home about 1:30. Long day!

Preston and I had scouts today.  We went to Judy's house.  She taught the boys about birds and helped them make bird feeders.

Maysen put some last minute studying in for the ACT.  She takes the test tomorrow.  AHHHH!!!  I can't believe she is that old.  Crazy how fast time moves.

Today is my grandma's birthday.  She would have been 92.  I miss her. She is the best.

Warm Snow

I absolutely hate the fact that I can't sleep in.  I was up at 6:00 and knew there was no chance of me getting back to sleep.  Preston woke up about a half an hour after I did.  Today was pretty relaxing, although I felt drained the entire morning.  I am not a night person at all.  It wipes me out when I stay up late.  We had fun playing games, drawing and reading.  Jorja had printed out a whole bunch of Webkinz pictures and the kids were coloring them for a contest.  Lincoln had brought up some cool oil pastels that they had fun using.

Today was really warm!  We didn't end up going outside until around 5:00.  We didn't want it to be too warm when we were sledding out there.  I just rode the snowmobile, but I had so much fun bringing the kids up.  Jorja loves our big black sled.  The first time down she had Ella and Abby with her.  They had the biggest smiles on their faces. Especially Abby.  I wish I had a picture of that!  It was adorable!

I noticed that the oil light came on the snowmobile I was riding.  I showed it to Bubs.  We traded snowmobiles so he could fix it and I could get the kids up the hill.  The only problem was, Mike and Bubs couldn't figure out which oil to put in and they did not want to get it wrong.  Like Bubs said, "I didn't want to be the one to break the snowmobiles!"  From the bottom of the sled hill I could see Steve and Sharon's cabin.  Their lights were on.  Mike and Bubs had tried calling Steve to ask.  Ange and I decided to drive over.  Steve and Sharon had just gotten there.  It was perfect timing!  We chatted for awhile and then Steve came over to help us.  They are going to come over for a bit tomorrow.  I was hoping they would be here this weekend!

Bubs made the food today.  I am so full!  I always eat way too much at the cabin.  I called and talked to Brett for a bit.  They went to Great Wolf Lodge a couple of days ago.  He said they loved it.  I was relieved. My family loves it, but that doesn't mean every family will.  It would have been embarrassing if they hated it and we had told them how great it was.  Luckily that didn't happen!

The cell phone reception is so much better here than it was in the summer.  I don't know if they built more towers, but holy cow!  What a difference!  Mike was able to watch his work meeting.  He tested out several things and said, "I could totally work from here now." Awesome!  We will have to try that out sometime!

I found an old recipe book camouflaged in the back of one of the kitchen cabinets.  The Bathtub Chocolate recipe sure looks like my mom's handwriting.  The paper doesn't seem to be yellow enough for it to be hers, but I am going to pretend.  Really, it looks exactly like it.  I always loved her lowercase rs.  The Ms are the same, the Qs.  I wonder if she wrote this?  If not, I wonder which one of her sisters handwriting looks just like hers?

This Refrigerator Rolls recipe is definitely my grandma's.  I sure do miss both of them.

I was planning on staying up and playing games, but I was too tired.  As soon as it was 10:00 I was in bed.  Looking forward to a fun day tomorrow though!

Flowers

John and his family left this morning around 9:00.  Brett, Matt and I worked on cleaning Grandma's house.  I took a few pictures before we left.  One picture I found in a book by my grandma's tv.  I love it!

Grandma & Grandpa

The other is a picture my grandparents have hanging in the spare room upstairs.  They always called it, "Harriett's Room".  At least that is what they always referred to it when talking to me.  My dad gave this collage to them shortly after my mom died.  It makes me laugh because he was just focusing on my mom.  For example, in the family picture in the middle Bubs' head is cut off.  You can only see the top of Matt & John's heads as well.  So funny!

I was able to take a few flowers home.  We put them in the shower of the motorhome and they all stayed upright.  I think we had the perfect amount of flowers, any less and they would have tipped over.

The drive home was great.  Matt, Brett and I played Dominion.  The piles kept moving.  We will have to come up with some kind of tray so we can play it easier while we are moving.  It started raining really hard the last hour of our trip.  After we dropped Matt off in Brigham City.  I walked back to get something and noticed a lot of water on our floor. We think water was coming up from underneath.  It was weird because I would wipe up the water and watch as more water would come under the cabinets.  The water wasn't coming from the sinks, fridge or shower.  We have had the motorhome out in the rain before, but this is the first time we have driven while it was raining.  It's too bad because some of our cabinetry was effected by the water.

On the way back my dad texted us and asked if he could bring up dinner.  Of course!  He brought up spaghetti.  Bubs' family came. Mostly to get Abby's 'fuzzy'.  Abby left her blanket that she loves at Grandma's house and was so excited to get it back!  We then stopped by my mom's grave and put some flowers from my Grandma's funeral on them.  It was lovely.

Ella

 Millie

 Ella & Amelia

 Ella, Lincoln, Millie

 Ella, Abigail, Lincoln, Amelia

 Dad, Stephanie, Spencer, Brett

Matt came by later and was able to play a few more games with us.  We played Pillage and Plunder.  I almost won in a sloop!  I couldn't get a schooner, so I just started attacking merchants.  I was an enemy of every nation.  I had $22,800 when the navy sunk me to the bottom. Only $2,200 away from winning!  I can't believe earlier in the game I had a cartographer in my hand and forgot to play it before I rolled a 3 on a treasure hunt.  Then I would have been victorious!  It would have been amazing!  Mike ended up winning the game, so I guess it wasn't too terrible.

Grandma Parry's Funeral

We said goodbye to my grandma today.  I love her.  I miss her.  I wish my kids could have known her like I did.  Full of life and love and always going, going, going.  Even though she was mostly confined to a couch the last ten years of her life, my kids adored her.  Rightly so.  We had a viewing before the funeral.  The grandkids were asked to carry flowers from the viewing room to the chapel.  It was heartbreaking watching my grandpa say goodbye to my grandma before they closed the casket.  They asked if anyone else wanted to say a last goodbye.  Of course I wanted to, but I thought if everyone that loved my grandma as much as I did comes up now we will be here forever!  My grandma was loved that much.  Preston did go up to see her one last time.  He started walking and then turned around a little nervous.  I nodded to him that it was okay.  He walked over to her casket and looked at her.  He nodded to grandma and then came back to me.  I don't know if I should have come up with him or not, but it was so sweet to watch him from where I was.  Knowing that he wanted to say goodbye because he wanted to, not because I wanted him to.  Bubs also went up with one of his kids, but I can't remember which one.  My Uncle Mark gave a nice prayer before her casket was closed.

Preston, Stockton, Stephanie

 John, Brett

Grandma's funeral was lovely.  Uncle John did a great job officiating. Jackie did her life sketch and Steve gave a talk.  All of the grandkids, great-grandkids and great-great-grandkids sang I Am a Child of God and Families Can Be Together Forever.  That was probably half the audience and the chapel was full!  My Grandpa also talked, which I was impressed with.  I want to put down more details, but there were so many moments that touched me I don't know where to begin.

After the funeral we travelled to the cemetery in Ririe.  My grandma grew up in Ririe.  Sue and Chuck are buried there.  So are her parents. We didn't want to take the motorhome there, so we farmed out our family to different cars.  Maysen and Jorja went with Matt & Sam. Stockton and Preston went with John and Cassie.  My dad, Brett, Mike and I went with my brother Mike.  My dad was a pallbearer.  Everyone of my Grandma's kids were represented.  Terry, Frank and Brad represented Sue.  My dad represented my mom.  Glade represented Kris.  Mark represented Jackie and John and Steve represented themselves.

Terry, Mark, Brad, Frank

John, Steve, Glade, Ron

Glade, Ron, Brad, Ella, Frank, Mark, Steve, John

 My dad putting his flower on my grandma's casket

 Grandpa putting his flower on Grandma's casket

After her grave was dedicated they told us that the dinner at the church would start at 2:00.  I really liked how they let us know the exact time. We didn't have to hurry back.  We were able to look around the cemetery.  I love cemeteries, and there were so many graves I wanted to see!  Plus, the weather was so perfect today.

Stephanie

 Grandchildren flowers

My Uncle Steve took us to Joseph Hyrum Lovell's grave.  He was the first child born after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.  He is my great-great grandpa.  It is crazy to think he was born right after the martyrdom.  My grandma had great-great grandchildren.  That makes Joseph Smith's time not seem so far away!

My Great-Great Grandpa's Grave

Steve also took us to my Grandma's parents grave.  I was hoping I would be able to see it today.

My Great Grandparents Grave

He also showed us Uncle George's grave which was super awesome! Uncle George is my grandma's brother.  He has a cabin we would go to once a year.  On his grave you can see the slide that goes down the mountain, the barn with the twisty slide out of it, the swing set, the cabin, the flagpole and even the trampoline!  I love it!  We couldn't find the zip line, the waterside or the golf course.  How fun!  We were looking at it with Jackson and Chelsea.  I told Chelsea she needed to design my grave. How fun would it be to have frogs and dragons everywhere!  Haha!  Well, frogs and dragons don't represent me.  I wonder what does?

Uncle George's Grave

It was nice to see so many family members at the chapel.  I collected e-mail addresses and hopefully I'll be able to put together a Parry Post for my grandma.  I feel so bad that I let that slip away.  I wish I could have kept doing it, for some reason I couldn't.  I don't know why.  Even though we were all together, there were so many people I meant to talk to that I didn't get a chance.  Funny how that happens.

Steve, Grandpa, Jackie, John

Mike pointed out to me that it is exactly half of my mom's family in this picture.  Four people living, four who have already died.  It is nice that each of the children have a parent now, and nice that each parent has three children they are with who love them completely.

We got a picture of my family as well.  I wish we could get together more often.  I love it when I get to be with all of them.

Brett, Mike, John, Dad, Stephanie, Spencer, Matt

 Grandma

 Grandma, Sue and Chuck - right next to each other

We watched the BYU game after the funeral.  My grandpa's tv had been cancelled since he hasn't lived here for a few months.  We watched the first part of the game gathered around Brett's cell phone.  I finally woke Mike up and he was able to get the game so we could watch it on a laptop.  It was fun to watch a game with my brothers again.  Especially since BYU won!  My dad, Mike, Skye and Larkin all went back to Utah after the game.  The rest of us stayed and played Dominion.  It was perfect weather, so we set up a table outside on my grandparents front lawn.  After awhile we put chairs by the tv outside and Mallory and Trevor watched a movie.

Dominion at Grandma's

Right as we were cleaning up we saw the Fuller parade.  Jackie, Mark, Courtney, Markell and their families were all taking a walk.  I walked home with them and stayed and chatted a bit before I headed back for more Dominion with my brothers.  For such a sad occasion, today was a wonderful day.