Thanksgiving & Gene's Passing

This year we went to VA for Thanksgiving.  It was a LOONNNG drive.  We did split it into a 10.5 hour day and a 7.5 hour day, but it was still long.  The kids did really well considering how much time they were strapped into their car seats!  That exclamation point is not to be confused with a perfect easy going drive, but they were good enough to not drive us too crazy.  They loved being out of the car once we got to Grandma & Papa's house.  Papa and Dean played for a long time and Dean was in heaven.

We visited Aunt Paulette at the Humane Society Shelter.  The cat room was a big hit!  

 While we were there we also got to visit Mark's dad.  Gene was diagnosed with colon cancer 2.5 years ago.  We spent the night at his house on Sunday and by Wednesday his health had taken a downturn.  We extended our trip so Mark could spend more time with his dad.  Mark went back and forth from his Mom's and Dad's every day for a couple days and the kids came back and forth with me every other day for a couple days.  Gene died late on the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Mark and 5 of the other 6 kids had spent the day with him.  It was a blessing in the fact that all of the children that could physically be at their dad's side his last days were there!  It was a beautiful  multi-denominational funeral service and both the LDS attributes and the non-LDS attributes of the funeral were uplifting and encouraging. 

Gene with us at our Wedding in 2007

 I'm not sure how much Mark wants me to share with the world, but one of the things I loved about Gene was his attitude about our children.  Almost every time Mark talked to his dad Mark could ask if there was anything Gene needed from us.  Gene would consistently reply with something along the lines of:  I don't need anything, just keep those grand-babies of mine healthy and happy.  

Gene will be missed!

Grandpa with Rachel & Dean X-mas 2013

About the only fun thing that happened that week was that most of the kids aunts and uncles were around the house to spoil the kids.  After the funeral we did our best to drown emotions in ice cream and lucky Dean and Rachel were the recipients of a lot of auntie attention and spoiling!