Beautiful Spokane!

One week after we got home from Japan/California, we got to go to Spokane with Eric's whole family!  It was beautiful there for many reasons.  We went for Eric's Grandpa Ransom's funeral, and there was such a sweet spirit at the viewing, funeral, and burial.  ALL of Eric's extended Ransom family except one cousin (who was about to have a baby) was there, and I love them!  It was so great to see everyone, Eric has about 8 girl cousins within a couple of years of our age, and they are all so fun and cool!  I loved talking to them and all my Ragnar buddies. :)  And we got to see KJ/Liz/Jayda, which we weren't expecting to see until the summer, bonus!

Anyway, here's Maris chowing down on a cookie on the plane. She did great, and Owen was SO excited to ride in an airplane!

 We got to swim at the hotel.

 During the funeral service all the great-grandkids sang "Families Can be Together Forever" and it was so sweet.  My kids, even Owen, sang every word with feeling and made all of us cry. :)

 pictures from the burial:

I hadn't remembered that Eric's Grandpa was in the Navy, so he got the whole veteran burial service.  He enlisted in 1945 when he graduated from high school, and was doing pilot training.  His first solo flight was on V-J Day, so he never had to fight, but he was willing!

 Eric and Ryan putting flowers on the casket

 Owen ran off to look at an American Flag on the other side of the cemetary, and Katelyn kindly went after him!

 cute candid of Kurtis and Cleo waiting during picture taking

 the girls with some second cousins

 Mary with her siblings in front of the Spokane temple: Lynda, Jolene, Steve, Cheryl, and Mary

and with their spouses

 Eric with all his Ransom cousins but one!  He's on the right with Elizabeth.

 All the great-grandkids who were there!  about 10 were missing.

 Can you tell the kids were DONE taking pictures??

 we got a quick one of our family.

 we celebrated Cleo's birthday at the hotel!

 Then Sunday morning we got to go to Grandpa Ransom's house and Eric got to show the kids where he grew up visiting his grandparents.  It was really neat, I loved it.  And it happens to be gorgeous there!

And then we flew home!  It was a quick and wonderful trip, thank you Mary and Brad!

and I forgot a couple of pictures in the April post:

all the neighbor girls in our pool, and Owen running the "lollipop race" for younger siblings at Katelyn's Hershey Track Meet.  He was so cute!!

April California Trip- just mom and the littles

While Eric and the girls were in Japan (yes I'm stalling again!) we had a bridal shower for Raycelan at Allison's house.  Sadly I only took these 3 pictures: 

1. Owen and Jenna being adorable together.  The last few times we have been together they have been so cute playing and pretending together so nicely.  I am so excited for their cute friendship to continue!  I just think of how much fun we had with our only boy cousin Wade Jr. when we were pre-teens and teenagers, and imagine them being like that.

 2. I took a picture of this because Kent did it and it was so cute!  He was super helpful getting ready for the shower, and then he took Derek and Jonathan and the little kids out for a little "bachelor party" during the shower.  It was awesome!

3. We took this picture at the end when we were leaving because we forgot to take a picture with Raycelan!  Or with Derek and Jonathan!  Anyway the shower was fun, we took a fun video of Derek answering questions about Raycelan and their relationship, then I made up a multiple choice test for the guests with the same questions, and we had Raycelan answer them for us and tell some stories, and then watched the video.  It was fun and cute.  Allison made great food, and it was cool to meet Raycelan's mom and other relatives.

 So then I took Melissa and Jonathan home, we slept, and we got up at 6am and left for Madera!  (Okay, actually Melissa never slept, she stayed out all night with her boyfriend Carl lol!  But that's a whole other story!!)  The 12-hour drive was the best and fastest ever for me, because Melissa (and Jonathan some too) talked to me the WHOLE WAY!  and helped so much with the kids.  It was SO much fun!!  Melissa has learned so much in college, and was so ready for her relationship with Carl. More on that later. :)

We stopped in Ivins for an hour to see the Cravens, since Melissa and Jonathan hadn't seen Hazel yet!

Maris and Owen love their cousins.

Seriously, Owen is the luckiest kid.  He has so many cousins close to his age to play with!  And they are all so cute.

The next beautiful Craven baby!

Sunday in Madera was so much fun.  Owen got to go to Grammy's Sunbeam class; she is such a good teacher.  Donny and Christine came to hang out for the whole day; they are living in Clovis until Donny starts his Master's program in Monterey in the fall.  So Owen got to enjoy more cousin time with cute Evelyn. They got along well, it was super cute.  

And I got to hang out with 4 of my siblings, always a good time!  Also Virat Kang came for dinner--Jenae's best friend/almost boyfriend.  He was really nice and seems like a great guy.

Monday we hung out at home because Mom didn't have to work, it was great.

Tuesday I took the kids to hang out at my grandparents' house in Chowchilla!  It was so neat to see them playing on the same swings and with the same toys from my childhood. :)  I got to have great conversations with both my grandparents.  I wish I lived closer so we could have a hang-out-with-the-great-grandparents day more often!

Also my Grandpa has an awesome hat/jumpsuit combo. :)

 Owen and Maris on the push-me pull-you

 Grandma got out some old picture albums for us to look at.  This is her parents taking a fun picture at her wedding reception with her mom wearing her veil.  Bill and Dora Hinze, my great-grandparents who lived for many years in Salem!

 A younger Bill and Dora with their two oldest children, Phillip and Delma.

My grandma with her siblings- Phillip, Delma, June, David, Grandma (Dorsmae), and Roberta.

 playing with the classic old toys!

 a picture of baby Derek- his hair was strawberry blond like Maris!

 Little Melissa, doesn't she resemble my kids?

 Me with my strawberry blond hair!

 Owen playing my grandparents' piano

 and back outside!  the slide,

 and the tire swing,

 even Grandpa went for a swing!

 Great-Grandma and Maris!

 Owen and Maris with their great-grandparents!

 Then Wednesday we went out to the farm-- Owen loves tractors and he was in heaven!!  He didn't want to drive in one- too loud- but he kept climbing back and forth between them pretending to drive.

 He was so happy!

 Maris liked the dogs- and it was here (in California- Jenae has a dog at home too) she started saying dog/duck!

Then we met my friend Gina (Dawson)Reed at Woodward Park and ran the 5k course!!  It was so fun to run that course and remember the many races I ran there, and to do it with my old teammate!

We met Donny and Christine and Evelyn for lunch,

 And we stopped by the Fresno Temple on the way home.  I wanted to show it to Owen.

 We walked all around and it was really nice.

 other than that we just hung out with the fam, and it was awesome.  Maris got more comfortable with Melissa

and Jonathan.

 Owen and Melissa had painting time, so cute.  I love that Melissa has been teaching preschool for her college classes, so she knows EXACTLY how to interact with Owen, it was the cutest thing.

 We enjoyed lots of trampoline time,

 play time with Grammy's toys,

 and got to see busy Jenae a little bit here and there!

 Oh and this is my Grandpa's scriptures from when he was younger.  The day he met my grandma he was at a church meeting and asked someone her name and he knew she was going to be important to him so he wrote it down in his scriptures where he had them open! So cool!

And before we knew it we were driving home!  Jonathan kept me company on that drive, as Melissa is working in Madera for a few weeks.  Eric and the girls came home the next day and it was a sweet reunion. :)