Whirlwind Week

This has been a whirlwind week, to say the least. We were looking forward to last weekend, followed by a couple of days of work/school & then our nice long break. Josh's parents were coming in on Tuesday to spend Thanksgiving with us. But then last Saturday morning Josh got up early to make some coffee & get some things done while the house was still quiet. When I woke up, he told me that his grandmother had passed away. It was expected, but that doesn't make it any less sad. We went about our day waiting for confirmation of the funeral plans. By Saturday afternoon it was confirmed that the funeral would be Tuesday. So that evening we frantically packed our stuff for the LONG drive to Pennsylvania. We decided that we would leave on Sunday morning - we would just take our time eating breakfast & then head out.

14.5 hours later (around 11:30 pm) we finally arrived in PA. It felt like we would never get there. We could have stopped somewhere for the night & finished driving Monday morning, but we just wanted to be there. We didn't really do much on Monday - just hung around the house, and in the afternoon our nephew Jacob came over. The 3 boys had a ball playing together!

The funeral was on Tuesday. I had the job of supervising the boys in the crying room, with movies & snacks. I could hear most of the service and it sounded really nice. Afterwards we all headed over to Josh's aunt & uncle's house where there was so. much. food!! There were a lot of people too - it was nutty! But it was nice for everyone to get together - it provided an opportunity for people to share their stories of Josh's grandmother with each other. She was a very special lady to a lot of people!

On Wednesday we drove into New Jersey to the military cemetary for the internment. Since Josh's grandfather was in the Marines (and is buried there), his grandmother is also allowed to be buried there. It was short, but sweet.

After that was over, we went back to Josh's aunt & uncle's again to continue making a dent in all the food they had. I think we helped, but there was still a lot! That night we went to Pizzeria Uno for dinner. I only mention this because they had the cutest thing on the kids menu - make your own pizza! They brought out the dough already flattened, and then all the toppings in little dishes, as well as a plastic apron that they could wear. So the boys sat at the table & placed all their toppings on their pizzas (then the server took it back & had it baked) - so cute! I think they had a fun time eating it too, since it was something they had made.

On Thursday Josh's mom made Thanksgiving lunch. It was nice to have a Thanksgiving despite the craziness of the week. After lunch, Josh & I took naps, because the plan was to leave around 7pm. Well, it had started snowing. SNOWING!! On Thanksgiving!  We also saw this guy out Josh's parent's back window (please excuse the photo quality - I took these through the kitchen window because I knew if I tried to go outside, he'd run away).  I think he wanted turkey...

Then the snow turned to rain, and it started getting colder, so we moved our departure time up to 6:00. We got the car loaded, the kids were strapped/buckled in, and Josh went to start the car, but nothing. Wouldn't start. After a brief delay involving some jumper cables, the car started, & we were off. We drove through the night & shaved 2 hours off the trip (no meal stops, and fewer potty breaks since the boys were sleeping). We made it home around 6:30am.

We managed to all make it through the day, including a trip to Home Depot for a Christmas tree, and a dinner outing to Red Robin. I'm glad we got to go to see Josh's family & be there to say goodbye to his grandmother.