I Love You As My Teacher.....

In June we traveled to Utah as a family to attend the funeral of our Aunt Barbara Whaley. Below is pictured one of the notes that came with flowers from one of her current students. I thought it captured so perfectly who Aunt Barbara was for so many of us. Whether she was you sister, aunt, neighbor, or friend, she taught every moment of her life. Aunt Barbara was an important person in my life. I've known her for 11 years now and she was there for most of the major decisions that I made in my adult life. She knew Tim and I when we were still "just friends", and she always welcomed me in to her Barrington Park condo when I was in Salt Lake for the weekend. I always left with a book or two in hand to read until the next time I came down from Idaho. She made the effort to be there for us whenever I or later, we needed her. I love you so much Aunt Barbara. You are greatly missed, but I will always remember the many lessons that you taught and all the love you gave. You have truly been an excellent example of the Christ-like life we should lead and I feel blessed to have been one of the lucky ones to have known you.

As Jason said, the kids did great on this trip. After my last UT fiasco with Grant in tow I was nervous. But they were marvelous. Many thanks to Jason for driving with us to UT. I know that was a huge sacrifice and we really appreciate it! I'm even tempted to say the drive part was pretty fun... but that's coming from a person who did not drive one single mile of the trip so.... you might want to ask someone else if you're interested in a more enlightened opinion!
The kids slept a lot in the car while we were there. They were so pooped from all the activities.
I just love this pic of Tim, G, and G-ma!
We were able to visit the Costello's on our last day and the kids had a ton of fun running around their property and petting the horse next door.
Happy 50th Birthday Aunt Susan!
The cousins had a ToN of FuN playing together and really wore each other out.
Here are all the kids with stuffed animals from Aunt Barbara. They carried these around non-stop. Lillie's bunny is still with her a lot and always when she sleeps at night.

Uncle Jason what can I say... you're the best!

G was so happy to finally have a head butting partner! And it looks like Uncle Jason is too!