Category: Our Family

We woke up first thing this morning and took mom and the kids to a local ward to attend church, about half an hour away. The kids were well behaved, and I think our family nearly doubled the size of their primary. Ethan and Tyra were in the same class, since they normally had so few kids in it. The people were really friendly and many of them came up to us to welcome us and ask who we were. We saw several looks of disappointment when we mentioned that we were just visiting.

As we were leaving the church we saw someone with boxes of girl scout cookies, but the boxes were different than the ones we get in Utah. Kyle went to talk to them and found out that they have the cookies that we can’t get in Utah! So we asked her if she could find get us a case each of the Lemonades, the Thanks-a Lots, and the Mango Cremes. She said she would find out and try to deliver them to us tonight, or ship them to us.

When church was over we drove out to Raleigh to see the temple. It is such a cute dinky temple! It shares a parking lot with a stake center right next door, and I don’t think the temple was much bigger than the stake center. We were able to walk around the whole temple in only a few minutes.

I found it interesting to see kale growing on the temple grounds.

It was really bright today, (actually it’s a nice break from the freezing weather that we have been having back home).

When we got back to Grandma Katrina’s house we found that she had a large pot of chicken soup waiting for us. Kyle was a bit concerned because a couple of days ago she had made the comment that she doesn’t cook much anymore. I pointed out that not cooking and not knowing how to cook are two different things. 🙂 It was actually very good soup. She used some of the leftover chicken and the vegetables that were left on the veggie tray that the cousins had brought over, and turned it into chicken soup. I had never thought of putting broccoli in chicken soup before. It turned out very good and I was very surprised to find that my kids ate it all. I didn’t see any kids bowls lying around with uneaten vegetables in them.

After we finished eating dinner, my girl scout cookies arrived! Just in time for dessert. We were all very excited to try the cookies, so we opened the Mango Cremes first. Grandma Katrina was reluctant to have one, as she doesn’t eat sweets much anymore, but after finishing the first, she asked us, “okay, what’s next?” We tried all three flavors.

Yesterday we didn’t really do anything besides going back to the cemetery to put the flowers on Great Grandma Ruby’s grave now that it has been filled in. I also walked around taking pictures of headstones of other family that is buried there.

Today we decided to go see “the teapot”. Aunty Laura led the way and we followed in our rental van. Auntie Laura didn’t seem to know where she was going however, so we kind of just drove around until we found it, and then we realized that it was on an island in the middle of the street and there wasn’t really anywhere for us to park. So Kyle and Auntie Laura got out to look at it and take a couple of pictures:

Then we were back to driving around trying to figure out where to go. As we were driving around I saw a sign pointing to a “Visitor Center”, and I wondered why we didn’t just go there. We drove down one of the main streets of Old Salem and the buildings were all cute really old buildings. I saw some people dressed for the time period too, and thought that was so cool. Then we ended up going back and finding the visitor center. 🙂

The first thing the kids saw in the visitor center were some penny smashing machines. They have never seen anything like this and really thought it was cool. Grandma Katrina saw their interest and instantly thought of all the change that she had in her car. So she took Tyra with her to go get the change and when she came back she gave each of the kids two quarters and a penny so that they could pick a design to smash into their penny.

There was also a video playing that gave some of the history of the Moravians that settled Old Salem in the 18th and 19th centuries. The kids also got distracted in the gift shop, and Grandma Katrina got distracted at the treat shop (she ended up buying several kinds of fudge to share with us). We finally bought some tickets and then worked our way across the bridge to go see what there was to see.

So that main street that we drove down before, with all of the old buildings, ended up being the ‘museum’ that we were going to see. Most of the really old buildings had been restored to look the way they had originally looked when they were first built. Each building had a sign outside to say what it was, and inside there were people dressed in period clothing to tell us all about the buildings and the people that lived or worked there.

First up was the tavern:

In the kitchen of the tavern the lady talked about coffee beans, and showed us how the people would roast them, and she let the kids use the grinder to grind some of the coffee beans.

Next, we saw the print shop. In one room they had the giant printing press:

And across the hall they had a photography room.

Next we saw the “Single Brother’s house”. When I first saw the sign I wondered why the single brother didn’t have a name. It made more sense when we went inside. The Single Brother’s house was not a house occupied by a specific single brother, it was occupied by all the single guys that had left their homes to go learn a trade. 😛 This is the room that they used for meetings:

Also in the single brothers house, there was a tailor. He was sitting on a table, sewing something and when we walked in he talked to us about his job of making clothes for men, and the different materials that were available for use during this time period.

Farther on down the hall we came to the room of the tinsmith. He was sitting at his table working on a pattern for something, and he told us about his job of making things out of tin. On one wall there were some shelves with a bunch of things that a tinsmith would have made. Things like cheese graters, coffee pots, cookie cutters, and tart pans.

On our way out of the single brothers house, mom saw a pump, and thought that was so cool. She asked if we thought it would still work, and I told her not to mess with it because I didn’t want somebody that worked there coming over and telling her that she shouldn’t be touching it. But mom didn’t listen, and she went over and after pumping it a few times, water actually did come out!

Next on the street was the Miksch house and gardens. Behind the house there was a large garden where they had all kinds of plants growing. The man there told us about the kinds of things that would be planted, and what they would do with them. He also talked about letting some of the plants go to seed so they could collect some seeds for the next season.

Here is a picture of the kitchen in the house:

This was the end of the first side of the first street and we decided that we had better go see some of what was on the second street, so we walked to the first building on the second street, which turned out to be the doctor’s house. The first rooms right off the entrance were: on the right, a sitting room, and on the left the apothecary where the doctor would fill prescriptions for people:

Upstairs there was just a kind of mini museum of things that a doctor during this time period would use for tools, and maybe some of the procedures that they would do. Downstairs towards the back of the house was the kitchen, which was rather large compared to the rooms that we had seen in some of the other houses. As we left the doctors house, we were told that there were some crafts in the barn, so we went to go check that out. Each of the kids got to make a valentine and they sent us on our way with enough paper for the kids to each make a second one later. This also proved to be a good break for Jenny to be able to nurse James. Then we were on our way again and because we were running out of time (they were closing the museum soon) we decided to head to the bakery next, because many people had made comments about it throughout the day. The bakery was a bit crowded, and Adam was getting fussy by this time, so mom offered to take him to the van and feed him (because I left the bottles and formula in the van rather than carrying them around with me all day). So mom took Adam, and Jenny, James, Auntie Laura, and Debby all went with her. We finished up at the bakery by purchasing some treats, and worked our way back toward the van. We came across the Timothy Vogler Gunshop and decided to check it out. The men showed us some guns that were made there and told us a bit about the building. They actually sold their guns, so if we wanted a hand-crafted rifle for $2500, we could have purchased one.

By the time we left the gun shop it was time for the museum to be closing, and so we headed back to the visitor center to meet back up with the others. We let each of the kids pick out a souvenir, and Grandma Katrina bought the five older kids each a pop gun, and it was time to go back to Grandma’s house to figure something out for dinner. 🙂

Debby made it to North Carolina first thing this morning. From what I was told, after I took my kids to bed, Auntie Laura, Jenny and mom did a lot of searching online for flights that would work, and they called and talked to the airline about getting the compassion ticket rate. But things weren’t so easy as it was before because there weren’t many flights that would come in early enough, and then by the time they found something that might work it was already past midnight in North Carolina, but they were trying to get Debby on a flight in Utah, right now, but the website wouldn’t let them buy the ticket because in North Carolina it was already the next day. So that meant another call to the airline. Then they finally had a ticket all set for Debby and they called her to tell her that they got her ticket ready and to go to the counter, and Jenny asked to verify how her name is printed on her drivers license. Debby still has her maiden name on her license, but they bought the ticket and put her married name on it. So that meant yet another call to the airline, and they had to cancel the ticket and then try to buy a new one, but since they already tried charging the first ticket to Grandma’s card, the card wouldn’t work the second time. So I guess Debby had to use her own card to pay for her ticket at the counter.

Great Grandma Ruby’s funeral was just a simple graveside service. It was cold and overcast and rainy. There were several cousins whom I have never met, that also attended. They were children and grandchildren of Great Grandma Ruby’s sisters, from what I could figure out. Great Grandma Ruby’s two living sisters Frances and Edna were also there, but due to the rain and the fact that they are also really old (upper 80’s early 90’s) they sat in their cars and watched from a distance.

Auntie Laura spoke a bit about Grandma Ruby and some of the funny things that she remembers. And then some of the other cousins also shared some experiences that they had had with Great Grandma Ruby, but to them she was “Aunt Ruby”.

When everyone was done sharing experiences, that was pretty much it. Mom and I went to the cars where Edna and Frances were to go talk to them a bit. We only got to talk to Frances though because Edna’s car drove away while we were still talking to Frances. Aunt Frances was so happy to see us. She couldn’t believe that my mom was there, and when she saw me, she knew exactly who I was. Tyra was with us too, and Aunt Frances asked if she was Chloe. We told her that this one is Tyra, but that I had come with all of my children. She really was just very happy to see us. And I was impressed that even though she got Tyra’s name wrong, she did make a guess with another of my kids names. So she does know my kids names, even though she had never seen any of them before today. 🙂

Here is Grandma Katrina, with mom and Auntie Laura next to Great Grandma Ruby’s casket. You can see the bulge in the canvas tent from the pouring rain:

Here are all of Great Grandma Ruby’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren that attended:

And here is a picture of all of Great Grandma Ruby’s descendants that attended (well aside from me because I am the one taking the picture 😛 :

I didn’t get a picture of everyone that was there. One of the cousins took what I thought was a picture, saying he would email it to everyone, but when the email came, we found that it was actually a video. Of course we weren’t doing anything other than looking at the camera because we all thought he was just taking a picture. I am sad that there wasn’t a luncheon or some other gathering or something, indoors somewhere so that we could have had a chance to mingle and chat with the other relatives some more.

Here is a picture of Great Grandma Ruby’s obituary:

I don’t know who wrote the obituary, but I thought it would have been awesome if it had mentioned Great Grandma Ruby’s legacy of three daughters, eight grandchildren, at least sixteen great grandchildren, and at least ten GREAT GREAT grandchildren! I say “at least” on those last two because I’m not sure that my count is accurate; there may be others that have been born into the family that I am not aware of yet. 🙂 I think it’s amazing that my great grandmother lived long enough to have that many generations of descendants before she died. I am so grateful that we were able to pack up last minute and fly across country to be able to be here for her funeral. I just wish that we hadn’t waited so long to come.

Yesterday started out just the way that most days start out for me. I got up around 6:30 and woke up the school kids to get them ready for school. After they were dressed I made sure they made their lunches, and then I sat all the kids down and gave them breakfast. Around 7:40 I sent the big kids out the door to walk to school, then I began my normal morning routine of taking care of the younger kids and trying to clean up the house. Dave arrived to get started on painting. He mentioned to me that it looked like our window in the stairway might have a leak, and that is bothering me. It has never leaked before, and if there is a serious leak then he won’t be able to paint there until it’s dry and if it’s been leaking for a long time that could cause some damage to that brand new drywall. But he never came back to say anything more about it, and any thoughts of a possible leak left my mind when I saw this message from Auntie Laura on my Facebook account:

If you want to come to nc, you will have to buy your airfare. Its an open end compassion fare. Let me know, i will send the info you will need. Love you. LJ

I was stunned. What info is she talking about? Of course I wanted to go to North Carolina. I’ve wanted to go for years to see Great Grandma Ruby and Grandma Katrina and get five generation pictures taken. But we had never had the money to do it, and now that we are a little better off financially we haven’t been able to go because the kids have school and Kyle has work, and we just haven’t made the time to do it. So I asked what info she was talking about and asked if everything was ok with everyone out there. She replied only with a hospital address for Great Grandma Ruby. NOW I knew that something was up. I asked what happened, but she didn’t respond.

Next I went to text mom to find out if she knew what was going on, and she beat me to it. She had sent me a message saying that Great Grandma Ruby was in the hospital and wasn’t doing very well and that she was on her way to go see her. Mom told me that if I wanted to come too, not to worry about the money, that she and Laura would figure that part out. I told her that I am NOT worried about the money, we have money in the bank and we are getting a nice tax return this year as well (not to mention the job offer that Kyle received last night that would be a higher paying job if he takes it). So mom said that she and Jenny and baby James were all leaving right then, and Auntie Laura emailed me their flight info a little later.

At this point I called Kyle at work. I told him that Great Grandma Ruby wasn’t doing very well, and that Mom and Jenny and James were on their way to go see her, and I told him that we were going too. I asked him to call airlines to find out about flights that were leaving that day and to find out about this compassion ticket that Auntie Laura told me to ask for, and I got started on packing. As soon as the little girls saw me getting the suitcases out they could tell that something was going on. Dinah was very interested and wanted to know why I was packing. I told her and Chloe that we were going to be getting on an airplane today to go see Great Grandma Ruby before she dies. I feel like I spent the day in a whirl. I couldn’t focus on what needed to be packed. I usually make a list of what each person needs and then start packing things for one person at a time. This time I just started with one person at a time and packing stuff up for them. I packed all of the church clothes in a separate suitcase, since I figured we would probably be attending a funeral while we were there. I did end up forgetting several things in my packing, either because I wasn’t thinking of them, or I couldn’t find them and I didn’t have time to search the house before leaving.

Kyle had some difficulty with finding flights and compassion rates. When he talked to Delta they wanted to charge us a thousand dollars per ticket, each way, and we needed seven tickets. That was completely insane. After calling a couple more airlines, Kyle was starting to feel like maybe we should just drive it. I nearly fell over at that suggestion; it’s a three day drive if you are doing nothing but driving, and we were trying to get there BEFORE Great Grandma Ruby died. But I told him to try calling American Airlines, because that is the airline that mom and Jenny were using, and if they couldn’t come up with a better price, then we would get in the car and drive it (I still thought it was crazy, but I was willing to compromise 😛 ). Kyle called American Airlines and their prices were half of what Delta had wanted and the American Airlines tickets were round trip with a flexible return date, so he booked our flight and came home.

Mom called me sometime before Kyle got home and told me that they were at the airport now. I told her that Kyle was working on flight information and then we would be on our way too. She wasn’t expecting to hear me say that “we” would be on our way, as she only hoped that I could come. She asked if we were able to find somebody to watch the kids so that we could come and I told her they are coming too, I told her that we are ALL coming, and she just broke down in tears. I could tell that that meant a lot to her, and it was more than she could have hoped for.

The big kids came home from school and we told them not to take their shoes off because we were leaving again. Dinah decided she was going to be the one to tell them that we were going on an airplane. Ethan was very upset to hear this. He REALLY wanted to have 100% attendance this trimester. We got diapers changed and got all the kids and suitcases loaded up in the van. Amy came over and picked up the Girl Scout troop checkbook and told me not to worry about the meeting for this week. Then we were off, on a bigger adventure than we have ever experienced before. I was stressing all the way to the airport. I knew we were running late. Kyle had the news radio station on so that he could hear the traffic reports and know which roads to avoid. One of the biggest reports on the radio was of a high speed chase that was happening near Taylorsville or West Valley City. An update on the high speed chase came on the radio and said that they had the car trapped and a section of road closed at Redwood Road near the 215 freeway. As soon as they said that, Kyle looked up and said “Uh, isn’t that where we are at right now?” I freaked out because it was where we were at, and I knew we wouldn’t make it to the airport if we got stuck in that blockage. I looked to the right and looked at the streets off the freeway off-ramp, and there were LOTS of police cars and tons of traffic where people wanted to get through that intersection but didn’t know that the police had it blocked off. We drove right by that mess and kept on towards the airport, and I was grateful that the road we were on was clear so we could do that. 🙂

We arrived at the airport parking, and got all the kids unloaded, and then we handed each kid (Ethan through Dinah) their car seat. We didn’t know whether we would need them on the plane, but we were sure that we would need them when we got to North Carolina and rented a van. Chloe and Lydia weren’t able to carry their car seats because they are little girls and their car seats are the biggest ones, so it was tricky for me to carry Adam, in his seat, and two other car seats, while Kyle had Chloe and Lydia and all of the suit cases to deal with. But we got to the shuttle stop and waited for the shuttle to arrive.

The shuttle took forever to finally get to us and then before heading to the airport, it had to finish it’s rounds around the parking lot. By the time we finally got inside the airport and were checking our bags we were told we were not going to make the flight that we were supposed to be on. The lady behind the counter was not very nice about it either. I mean come on, I’ve got seven little kids to deal with at the moment, you can at least be polite when you tell me that we are too late. They did eventually find another flight to get us on. Our original flight had us going through Chicago, and then on to Charlotte, NC but this new flight had us going to Dallas in the evening, then after a several hour layover on to Charlotte in the morning. We decided that if that was the quickest way, we would just do it. We got our boarding passes, and continued on through security, and then onto our plane.

Our seats were near the back of the plane, and the plane wasn’t super full, so we were able to strap the big car seats down in empty seats. The kids were not allowed to sit in their booster seats on the plane, so those went in the overhead compartments. The kids were rather excited to be on a plane, and they were checking everything out. Finally we took off and we were in the air, I think the kids really liked the take off. Adam and Lydia were lap sitters and all of the kids were really well behaved on the flight.

We arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport around 9:30pm, and our flight out to Charlotte wasn’t until 7:30 the next morning. I had NO desire to sit in an airport all night long with 7 kids and nowhere to keep them contained, so we went to see about finding a hotel. But first we had to figure out how to get out of the airport. The Dallas airport is HUGE! When Kyle asked where we were supposed to go, the man that he was talking to told him to go around the corner right there and then just down the hall and then there would be a place to find out about the hotels. Well that hall that he was talking about just kept going and going and going. Eventually we asked someone else where we were supposed to be going, and he escorted us to go find someone that could help us find a place to stay for the night. They were very helpful and even called the hotel and got it all set up, two rooms, next to each other, and at a “distress rate” since the only reason we were looking for rooms was because our layover was just too long. The lady also went ahead and fixed up our seats for our morning flight so that we wouldn’t have to wait for someone to do that for us in the morning. And then she walked us out and waited for the hotel shuttle with us.

Our hotel rooms were small with two beds each, and our rooms were next to each other but they didn’t have a door to adjoin them. Kyle took Adam and the boys and went to one room and I stayed with the four girls in the other room. I texted mom to let her know that we were in Dallas, and that our next flight was in the morning and that we were in a hotel and were going to take a nap before heading back to the airport. She texted me back asking me to call her, so I did. I thought she wanted me to clarify what was going on with our getting there, but she interrupted me and told me that Grandma passed away. I was sad. I was too late. I have been wanting to take my family to go see her for years, and I waited too long. I just responded with a simple ok, and said that we will be there in the morning, and I got off the phone. Then I told the girls that Great Grandma Ruby already died. Without skipping a beat, Dinah said “It’s ok mom. We will see her when she is presurrected.” This made me smile. Oh, the truths spoken by a child. I LOVE that that was her very first thought. I sent Kyle a message to let him know, and then we all tried to get some sleep.

At 4:30 the alarm on my phone woke me up and I sent Kyle a text to make sure he was getting up too, and to decide what we were going to do about breakfast. Kyle wanted to take a shower before we left, so that meant that I could let the girls sleep a little longer. We didn’t have our suitcases because they went straight to North Carolina and so we had slept in what we were wearing, so we didn’t really need to get dressed before leaving. After Kyle showered, we just needed to brush hair, put shoes on, and gather up all the car seats and we were out of there. We went down to the lobby and waited for the hotel shuttle to take us back to the airport. We already had our boarding passes all set, because the nice lady got them all fixed up last night and so we just got in line to go through security. After we were through security, and had found our gate, Kyle went to the little food court area nearby and got some McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches and orange juice for breakfast. As we sat there eating, we attracted a bit of attention, as airport employees and other random people passed and saw how many kids we had they just thought we were amazing. To be taking ALL these kids on an airplane!

We finished eating and made sure to take the kids to the bathroom and then it was time to get on our second plane. This flight was less full than our first one. We were told that there were only about 20 people flying coach, and about half of them were us. Our seats were still in the back of the plane, but each of our kids pretty much could take their own row. This time the kids were even more well behaved than our flight yesterday, basically because we had so little sleep during the night, that most of them conked out while we were in the air and slept the whole way to North Carolina. When the plane landed, Dinah sat up and asked me why nobody brought her a drink while we were in the air. I told her that she was asleep when they passed out drinks. She was kind of surprised and didn’t believe me, which I thought was funny. With all the kids, we waited until we were the last ones off the plane. We had to wake up the kids that were still sleeping, and get all the car seats and carry-on bags. But while Kyle and I were doing that, the pilot of the plane came back and asked if all these kids were good on the flight, and when he was told that they had been very good, he asked them if they would like to come up and see how to fly a plane. They were all excited about that idea, so they followed the pilot to the front, while I continued trying to get everything together so we could get off. Kyle went to the front with the kids to get some pictures:

After finally getting everything together, and giving the car seats back to the kids to carry, we were finally off the plane. As we walked through the terminal to go find the baggage claim area, we were again attracting attention. Families of our size are not very common in most places of the world. As we walked through the terminal I heard a man exclaim “THAT’S the way to do it! Make every kid carry their own seat!” That made me laugh. The Charlotte airport was a lot smaller than the Dallas airport so it was a lot easier to find the baggage claim area, and right next to the baggage claim were the car rental counters. 😀 I was grateful that they weren’t far away. I stayed near the baggage claim with all the kids and all of our car seats and luggage, while Kyle went to go find a set of wheels big enough for our whole family. He found someone that had a 12 passenger van that we could rent, and then we had to figure out how to get everything and everyone out to wait for the shuttle so we could go get the van. It wasn’t easy, but we finally accomplished it. Then we got all the seats buckled into the van and we were off to find Auntie Laura’s place. Some of the kids were confused at getting into this random van and driving away. One of them asked if we were stealing it! Kyle and I had to explain that we paid them some money so that we can borrow it for the time that we are in North Carolina.

We drove around aimlessly for a few minutes while we waited for mom or Jenny or Auntie Laura to respond with an address of where to meet them, and after Kyle got the map on his smart phone all set up we were on our way. We found them at Auntie Laura’s house, and we spent some time there while mom cooked up some food for everyone, and we discussed what was going on.

After everyone had a chance to eat, Auntie Laura said that Grandma Katrina wanted everyone to come over to her place. So we got back into the van and went to Grandma Katrina’s house. We saw this Shell station on the way, and I thought it was totally awesome! The picture isn’t that great though. Jenny had my real camera, and Kyle tried to use his phone camera to take a picture just as the light turned green and we had to get moving again.

It was about an hour drive to Grandma’s house, and when we got there, she wasn’t actually there, but she knew we were coming and so the house was unlocked for us and we went in. As soon as I was through the door, I saw things that I remember seeing when I was a kid. First was the table made of a sheet of glass sitting on rock/driftwood (I don’t actually know what it’s made out of…):

Then I noticed the painting of the ship on the wall, and I remember that too:

When we went upstairs we found that the table was piled high with food that some of our other relatives had brought over for Grandma Katrina, and Grandma Katrina is super glad that we came over with a whole bunch of mouths to help her eat it all. 🙂 So we have spent the evening spending time with Grandma Katrina, and helping her to eat some of this food. The kids have also been having a blast playing with Grandma’s slot machine. It only takes slugs, but it makes a whole much of noise and lights up, and the kids thought it was just great fun.

We also have been trying to figure out how to fly Debby out here and have her get here BEFORE the funeral tomorrow. I didn’t realize that she didn’t know, or that she would have wanted to come, otherwise I could have said something to her before we left and she could have come with us. Talking to mom about it, she didn’t tell anybody else. She said that Jenny knows because mom needed somebody to travel with, and Sandy might know, because she is going to be watching Jenny’s kids, and now Debby knows too, but mom said that Patsy, Wendy, David, Jonathan, and Tiffany still don’t know. It bugs me that mom didn’t tell anybody. Also I found out that mom knew on Sunday, while she was at my house, that Great Grandma Ruby was in the hospital and wasn’t expected to leave it alive. But she didn’t bother to tell anybody else about it until yesterday, and by then we were too late.

We are going to be spending the night here tonight. I think our family will be sleeping in Great Grandma Ruby’s room. Kyle and I can share the bed with Adam, and then there is plenty of room on the floor for the rest of our kids. And tomorrow we will go to Grandma’s funeral.